Gavin Bazunu

[Bad Wolf]

2 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Makes me think that Sports Republic are more concerned with turning a profit on players than our league position.

Well of course they are. Why wouldn't they be? Pretty sure they've basically openly admitted that. But their best chance at turning a profit is getting us back to the top flight.

[Badger]

Wasn’t Lumley regarded as crap at his previous club(s) ?

Can’t say we’ve seen enough of him for an informed opinion, other than at the Watford cup game thinking Bazunu might have been crucified on here had he conceded the free kick that Lumley had.

Another coup by our recruitment team perhaps. 

[SaintsBarry74]

2 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

He is super cool receiving the ball. Excellent distribution too. Quick to get out and clear and very much part of our possession game. All attributes that the next development of a posession based sweeper keeper set up would love to have.

All of this doesn't matter when he's leaking goals out of his arse - he broke the record in PL for most goals let in that should have been saved. Simply put he's consistently the worst shot stopper in the league by a wide margin to the average GK. It's honestly gross neglegience at this point to keep starting him.

He's so shit I believe the club is lowering his value by playing him.

[Bad Wolf]

4 minutes ago, Badger said:

Wasn’t Lumley regarded as crap at his previous club(s) ?

Can’t say we’ve seen enough of him for an informed opinion, other than at the Watford cup game thinking Bazunu might have been crucified on here had he conceded the free kick that Lumley had.

Another coup by our recruitment team perhaps. 

Yep. Lumley has been largely awful for the level he's played at and only looked any good against lower league teams.

[Andrew Watson]

From a good mate a big QPR fan, I was told that the Rangers fans rated him their worst keeper for years.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

22 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

All of this doesn't matter when he's leaking goals out of his arse - he broke the record in PL for most goals let in that should have been saved. Simply put he's consistently the worst shot stopper in the league by a wide margin to the average GK. It's honestly gross neglegience at this point to keep starting him.

He's so shit I believe the club is lowering his value by playing him.

In fairness, I did then go on to point out that he seems to let in a lot of just a little more than standard saves.

[Galway saint]

14 minutes ago, Andrew Watson said:

From a good mate a big QPR fan, I was told that the Rangers fans rated him their worst keeper for years.

so our no 1 is saints worst keeper in years/decades and our no 2 is QPRs worst keeper in years - fucking great ! you could lot make it up. we should get rid of whoever is in charge of recruitment…

 

 

 

[skintsaint]

49 minutes ago, Galway saint said:

so our no 1 is saints worst keeper in years/decades and our no 2 is QPRs worst keeper in years - fucking great ! you could lot make it up. we should get rid of whoever is in charge of recruitment…

 

 

 

Don't forget our no 3...sitting on 50k a week doing FA. 

[pimpin4rizeal]

It’s quite shocking really that we have had to accept him in goal unchallenged for two seasons .. I think he’s got off quite lightly considering .. it’s like having dexter blackstock in goal for two years .

i said this last season that having him in goal and che up front makes it really really difficult to win tight matches .. Adams we kind of get away with a bit more in the championship as we create so many chances  but The comments above about baz letting in any half decent attempt and looking like a outfield player in goal are bang on, it’s a huge handicap for us 

Edited 3 April, 2024 by pimpin4rizeal

[stevy777_x]

4 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Don't forget our no 3...sitting on 50k a week doing FA. 

And our number 4 out on loan has kept 7 clean sheets in a row lol

[pimpin4rizeal]

6 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Yep. Lumley has been largely awful for the level he's played at and only looked any good against lower league teams.

How are his shot saving stats compared to baz .. be interesting if any one can be bothered to dig them up 

[SaintsBarry74]

3 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

How are his shot saving stats compared to baz .. be interesting if any one can be bothered to dig them up 

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

[coalman]

41 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

We hire keepers who can't save, full backs who can't defend and strikers who can't play at all. It's like Football Manager on opioids.

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

Fucking hell, that's priceless 🤣

 

[S-Clarke]

1 hour ago, coalman said:

We hire keepers who can't save, full backs who can't defend and strikers who can't play at all. It's like Football Manager on opioids.

Maybe our analyst team had these tables upside down. It's the only sense I can make of it.

[saintant]

It does defy all logic that we search for a new keeper as cover because the number 1 is not a great shot-stopper and sits rock bottom of the Championship stats for this season whilst the number 2 is being paid £50k weekly to go through the motions at training and the best we can come up with is someone who sat rock bottom of the Championship stats for the previous season.  Is the tea lady in charge of recruiting goalkeepers?

[Miltonaggro]

2 hours ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

The scariest thing is that big Joe is still statistically slightly more effective than Bazunu

[Miltonaggro]

47 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Maybe our analyst team had these tables upside down. It's the only sense I can make of it.

Excel on Rasmus's laptop malfunctioning. 

[coalman]

9 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Excel on Rasmus's laptop malfunctioning. 

=IF(RANDBETWEEN(1,100),RECRUITPLAYER)

PUBLISHBLOGPOST()

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 hours ago, coalman said:

We hire keepers who can't save, full backs who can't defend and strikers who can't play at all. It's like Football Manager on opioids.

They've looked at the editor to see what the PA is going to be, and ignored everything else. 🙂

[saintant]

18 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Excel on Rasmus's laptop malfunctioning. 

If it aint broke, break it! This sums up Rasmus who is clearly not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

[sledger]

couple of months ago at an away game iwent up on terrace early,cant remember why,but most of us dont get to see the keepers warming up because we are to busy p+ssing it up.At this game he was horrific in the warm up,dropped the ball missed saves so the fact that he is bad in the game should come as no shock.

[Chez]

5 hours ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

dunno, but he's just got himself another contract at Saints, so I think it pretty safe to say it will be Baz, Lumley and probably Lis as our three keepers next season.

[Wade Garrett]

2 hours ago, saintant said:

If it aint broke, break it! This sums up Rasmus who is clearly not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

He’s a fucking onion.

[Nordic Saint]

6 hours ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Joe Lumley ranked 55th out of 55 in the Championship 22/23.

horrid.

 The worst shot stopper in the league last season. Who the fuck is in charge of our recruitement??

We now know how our goalkeeper recruitment is done. Somebody needs to teach them how to read the list the right way up.

[Turkish]

15 hours ago, Badger said:

Wasn’t Lumley regarded as crap at his previous club(s) ?

Can’t say we’ve seen enough of him for an informed opinion, other than at the Watford cup game thinking Bazunu might have been crucified on here had he conceded the free kick that Lumley had.

Another coup by our recruitment team perhaps. 

Just like strikers and centre backs our glovesman recruitment has been absolutely ridiculous for years. Signing Gunn for £10m when we already had Forster and McCarthy. Giving McCarthy a long term contract which made him one of the clubs highest paid players whilst never really being a competent keeper and is now third choice. Signing Lis then loaning him out, signing a keeper who had never played above league one level and expecting him to immediately become a premier league level keeper. Then having back up so bad you have to stick with him despite him being not up to the job, it’s an utter shambles when you look at it. How hard is it to pickup a fairly experienced and competent goal custodian that might make the odd point winning save?

Edited 3 April, 2024 by Turkish

[S-Clarke]

43 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Just like strikers and centre backs our glovesman recruitment has been absolutely ridiculous for years. Signing Gunn for £10m when we already had Forster and McCarthy. Giving McCarthy a long term contract which made him one of the clubs highest paid players whilst never really being a competent keeper and is now third choice. Signing Lis then loaning him out, signing a keeper who had never played above league one level and expecting him to immediately become a premier league level keeper. Then having back up so bad you have to stick with him despite him being not up to the job, it’s an utter shambles when you look at it. How hard is it to pickup a fairly experienced and competent goal custodian that might make the odd point winning save?

You can go back a tiny bit further to the ridiculous re-contract of Fraser Forster, after he'd only just signed one. That financially lumbered us for years.

Our goal keeping recruitment has been bat shit crazy for many years now. If Rotherham can find Viktor Johanssson then why can't we find one of those? This 'finding the next young gem we can sell for a profit' approach is killing us dead.

Edited 3 April, 2024 by S-Clarke

[Toussaint]

On 01/04/2024 at 21:44, benali-shorts said:

He has the agility of a dead prostitute. 

Q. What is the difference between a Ferrari and a dead prostitute? 

 

A. I don't have a Ferrari in my garage

[david in sweden]

43 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

You can go back a tiny bit further to the ridiculous re-contract of Fraser Forster, after he'd only just signed one. That financially lumbered us for years.

Our goal keeping recruitment has been bat shit crazy for many years now.  If Rotherham can find Viktor Johanssson then why can't we find one of those?                      This 'finding the next young gem we can sell for a profit' approach is killing us dead.

Agreed about Forster (Clarkie) and  the subsequent deal for McCarthy was much the same scenario, but goalkeepers take time to develop and very few young

goalies are good in the first season or two - sometimes longer. Perhaps Joe Hart was an exception and eventually made it to the England spot, likewise Pickford.

Getting a good young talented goalie on board is difficult when you have to say ..come and be our no.2 goalie - and we'll let you play a few Cup games.

In time Gunn became no. 1  at Norwich,  and Polish "Bart" was a disaster in most of Saints games, but has played for Championship sides for more than 10 years 

and it took Gazzaniga a few years to get a regular spot - anywhere.   I've always thought goalkeepers get better after 30 !, ..and it's often the case.

 

Signing Bazunu was a gamble, and Turkish also made the same point about signing Angus Gunn who was really out of his depth, and that 0-9 game finished him.

Burnley signed young Trafford (?) for 18 million and he's had big problems, (also from Man City,) but the transition from U21 or Championship to Premier League

is an enormous gap and is much greater than a mere 3 league places.  Last year's  3 promoted sides have struggled, but the relegated sides have flourished.  

Bazunu will improve.... but it may take time - if we can keep faith with him, but we need a first class coach to help him in that position. 

[Turkish]

45 minutes ago, david in sweden said:

Agreed about Forster (Clarkie) and  the subsequent deal for McCarthy was much the same scenario, but goalkeepers take time to develop and very few young

goalies are good in the first season or two - sometimes longer. Perhaps Joe Hart was an exception and eventually made it to the England spot, likewise Pickford.

Getting a good young talented goalie on board is difficult when you have to say ..come and be our no.2 goalie - and we'll let you play a few Cup games.

In time Gunn became no. 1  at Norwich,  and Polish "Bart" was a disaster in most of Saints games, but has played for Championship sides for more than 10 years 

and it took Gazzaniga a few years to get a regular spot - anywhere.   I've always thought goalkeepers get better after 30 !, ..and it's often the case.

 

Signing Bazunu was a gamble, and Turkish also made the same point about signing Angus Gunn who was really out of his depth, and that 0-9 game finished him.

Burnley signed young Trafford (?) for 18 million and he's had big problems, (also from Man City,) but the transition from U21 or Championship to Premier League

is an enormous gap and is much greater than a mere 3 league places.  Last year's  3 promoted sides have struggled, but the relegated sides have flourished.  

Bazunu will improve.... but it may take time - if we can keep faith with him, but we need a first class coach to help him in that position. 

Bazunu might improve but at what cost? Are we going to stick with him for a few more years costing points then if when he’s finally good enough flog him, which we know is going to happen. The reality is he’s probably at least 5-6 years away from getting anywhere towards his peak to the point where a top club would want him that can afford to pay what the fee will be. Plus unlike other positions you can only play one goalkeeper soo ok no guarantee even  if he is ever good enough anyone would want him. how many more points are we going to drop between now and then?

 

Man City must love dealing with us, with the money they’ve made from us we’ve basically covered Haalands transfer fee. 

Edited 3 April, 2024 by Turkish

[SaintsBarry74]

I'm not sure why the academy decided GK was the right fit for Bazunu. Perhaps it's because he lacks pace? Personally, I think he might excel more as a CM or CDM. He's excellent with his feet, but he definitely doesn't seem to possess the basic attributes of a goalkeeper.

Combined with Lumley, it's shocking business really.

The worst goalies in tier 1 & 2 - you'll never sing that!

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Bazunu might improve but at what cost? Are we going to stick with him for a few more years costing points then if when he’s finally good enough flog him, which we know is going to happen. The reality is he’s probably at least 5-6 years away from getting anywhere towards his peak to the point where a top club would want him that can afford to pay what the fee will be. Plus unlike other positions you can only play one goalkeeper soo ok no guarantee even  if he is ever good enough anyone would want him. how many more points are we going to drop between now and then?

 

Man City must love dealing with us, with the money they’ve made from us we’ve basically covered Haalands transfer fee. 

It’s essentially Angus Gunn Deja vu, but on balance Gunn was arguably the better player. I hope that Man City don’t have promising Welsh keeper in their under 18s in case our lunatic scouts fancy the British Isles full set. 

[Badger]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

 

Our goal keeping recruitment has been bat shit crazy for many years now. If Rotherham can find Viktor Johanssson then why can't we find one of those? This 'finding the next young gem we can sell for a profit' approach is killing us dead.

Agree.

How much did Leicester pay for their GK from Denmark, or Ipswich for theirs ?
 

The Ipswich bloke made the sort of save on Monday at a crucial time of the game. Can we say the same ? 
 

The Rotherham GK is light years ahead of anything we’ve got.

Can only hope Darren Mowbray can find the sort of player - not just GK - that has eluded our recruitment team. 

[DT]

We've had a blind spot for keepers for so long it's not funny. I think Baz should have saved the first - shouldn't be beaten at his near post and 'ooh, he was expecting a cross' just doesn't wash. Slow dive and middle of the goal for the second. And glaciers move quicker for the third, after he moronically punted the ball straight to their keeper with 30 seconds to go, thereby giving them the chance to come forward and make me money at the bookies, sorry, score the most predictable soft goal with our onlooker defenders in history. Still fuming, and at our manager's inability to make key subs at key times, if only to waste time. And why take Aribo off? He was having an excellent game (ooh he was tired).

The prospect of more of this lunatic naivety next season is not very enticing, still less with an inferior squad. Oh for old school tactics and a bit of pace. There's a reason everyone else does it

[S-Clarke]

3 hours ago, david in sweden said:

Agreed about Forster (Clarkie) and  the subsequent deal for McCarthy was much the same scenario, but goalkeepers take time to develop and very few young

goalies are good in the first season or two - sometimes longer. Perhaps Joe Hart was an exception and eventually made it to the England spot, likewise Pickford.

Getting a good young talented goalie on board is difficult when you have to say ..come and be our no.2 goalie - and we'll let you play a few Cup games.

In time Gunn became no. 1  at Norwich,  and Polish "Bart" was a disaster in most of Saints games, but has played for Championship sides for more than 10 years 

and it took Gazzaniga a few years to get a regular spot - anywhere.   I've always thought goalkeepers get better after 30 !, ..and it's often the case.

 

Signing Bazunu was a gamble, and Turkish also made the same point about signing Angus Gunn who was really out of his depth, and that 0-9 game finished him.

Burnley signed young Trafford (?) for 18 million and he's had big problems, (also from Man City,) but the transition from U21 or Championship to Premier League

is an enormous gap and is much greater than a mere 3 league places.  Last year's  3 promoted sides have struggled, but the relegated sides have flourished.  

Bazunu will improve.... but it may take time - if we can keep faith with him, but we need a first class coach to help him in that position. 

In isolation I had no issue what so ever with us purchasing Bazunu 2 seasons ago, but.....it needed to be in combination with a seasoned goalkeeper. Bazunu as a L1 keeper the year before wouldn't have had any expectations to be a starter in the PL, so he becomes the backup/cup goalkeeper and he learns from the more seasoned pro.

That's how it should have been done, but the way we put all our eggs into the kid goalkeeper, kid CB, kid CM etc was absolutely nuts. It's the same argument as above, no issues with signing kids in isolation but they can't be your key men...let them have some time to fricking develop.

As a club we get full ourselves, we did under Reed/Kruger and also under Semmens. They probably still spend most nights patting themselves on the back regarding Tino livramento, but that signing alone wasn't justification to go and fill the squad with potential Tino's the following season. It's arrogance bordering on stupidity. 

We got full of ourselves after Koemans first season as well - we thought we'd cracked football, we thought we'd cracked that 10-15m player bracket but were totally ignorant to prices going up and inflation. This club runs me down sometimes because they do the most dumb fuck things, all self inflicted because they like to think they're different than anyone else.

Edited 3 April, 2024 by S-Clarke

[Osvaldorama]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

In isolation I had no issue what so ever with us purchasing Bazunu 2 seasons ago, but.....it needed to be in combination with a seasoned goalkeeper. Bazunu as a L1 keeper the year before wouldn't have had any expectations to be a starter in the PL, so he becomes the backup/cup goalkeeper and he learns from the more seasoned pro.

That's how it should have been done, but the way we put all our eggs into the kid goalkeeper, kid CB, kid CM etc was absolutely nuts. It's the same argument as above, no issues with signing kids in isolation but they can't be your key men...let them have some time to fricking develop.

As a club we get full ourselves, we did under Reed/Kruger and also under Semmens. They probably still spend most nights patting themselves on the back regarding Tino livramento, but that signing alone wasn't justification to go and fill the squad with potential Tino's the following season. It's arrogance bordering on stupidity. 

We got full of ourselves after Koemans first season as well - we thought we'd cracked football, we thought we'd cracked that 10-15m player bracket but were totally ignorant to prices going up and inflation. This club runs me down sometimes because they do the most dumb fuck things, all self inflicted because they like to think they're different than anyone else.

Agreed. Worst part is, so much of this has been obvious. It’s not even like we are fans with 20/20 hindsight

 Almost all of this was brought up at the fan forums. 
 

Just insane management from the top down. 

[saints-til-i-die]

Some statistics.

I'm sure the club is all over this with their focus on data.

Goals Prevented

20		John Ruddy	-5.9
21		Asmir Begovic	-6.9
22		Ryan Allsopp	-8.0
23		Gavin Bazunu	-10.7

 

save percentage 

20		Seny Dieng	64.2%
21		Matija Sarkic	63.6%
22		Lee Nicholls	63%
23		Gavin Bazunu	61.9%

 Can anyone spot a pattern?

[Master Bates]

 

https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepersadv/Championship-Stats

Edited 3 April, 2024 by Master Bates

[danjosaint]

But nothing will change, blindly going with it despite most people realising he was shite 18mths ago, certainly not his fault we are where we are but he has to take some blame but it boils down to that arrogant prick in charge and his blindness to what's wrong 

[Galway saint]

16 minutes ago, danjosaint said:

But nothing will change, blindly going with it despite most people realising he was shite 18mths ago, certainly not his fault we are where we are but he has to take some blame but it boils down to that arrogant prick in charge and his blindness to what's wrong 

I think we will see a change on Saturday albeit given Lumley is said to be the worst QPR keeper in recent years it might be short lived…

Didnt get Baz get dropped at a similar stage of the season last year for being shit  ?

the other thing i really don’t get is when people say Baz has potential or will be at his peak in six years or so.

I’ve seen nothing since he joined us to suggest he will be a top level keeper. he doesn’t seem to have any of the attributes of a top level keeper but maybe someone who doesn’t make saves is the future of goalkeeping; a sort of anti-goalkeeper.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

"This needs to change" 🙂

Looking forward to seeing the placard.

While I'd not put it past the club for a moment to persevere with a player in the face of all evidence in the hope of a fat sale, and because their arrogance knows no bounds...

Baz clearly isn't the best shot stopper. We all know that. The club know that too. However, they and successive managers see a lot of other things in his game. There are any number of other stats that could bring that out.

Some examples. When we've been at our peak RussBall this season, Baz has been key to providing quick, precise, well weighted passes all across the back line, and further up when required. It's been very impressive.

He's among the best at ensuring the posession based game that Martin's system depends on works. You'll see any number of our moves go through him at some stage. Yes, a lot of them would be standard for lots of keepers. But a number weren't.

In practice, that peak RussBall has been mucked about with. Stephens, Brooks, Rothwell, Sule aren't at their best with it.

So Baz's strengths aren't quite as needed. And there are any number of keepers who provide better all round shot stopping and support in a non RussBall set up.

It's the same now as it was for Baz at the start of the season. He, like a lot of our players, are stand outs is some areas, and limited in others. Baz's limitations are pretty severe, and noticeable, because it's stopping a shot.

For all the talk of ceilings and development, that might not happen, or not get to the level needed. I hope he improves, likely gradually, but enough that we get the benefit of an all round game while he's with us.

With all respect to the stats sites. Those are not the level of data analysis conducted by the clubs. It's a developing field. It doesn't fully reflect anyone's all round game for context. And most importantly, it doesn't have a stat for Scowling. Baz is top ranked for Scowliness.

[Dark Munster]

3 hours ago, danjosaint said:

But nothing will change, blindly going with it despite most people realising he was shite 18mths ago, certainly not his fault we are where we are but he has to take some blame but it boils down to that arrogant prick in charge and his blindness to what's wrong 

Martin or Ankersen?

That describes both of them.

[Dark Munster]

5 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

This club runs me down sometimes because they do the most dumb fuck things, all self inflicted because they like to think they're different than anyone else.

In fairness they are different than everyone else. They're f*cking more arrogant and more stupid.

[david in sweden]

14 hours ago, Turkish said:

Bazunu might improve but at what cost? Are we going to stick with him for a few more years costing points then if when he’s finally good enough flog him, which we know is going to happen. The reality is he’s probably at least 5-6 years away from getting anywhere towards his peak to the point where a top club would want him that can afford to pay what the fee will be. Plus unlike other positions you can only play one goalkeeper soo ok no guarantee even  if he is ever good enough anyone would want him. how many more points are we going to drop between now and then?

 

Man City must love dealing with us, with the money they’ve made from us we’ve basically covered Haalands transfer fee. 

.and you're right Turkish.  It may take another 5 years before Bazunu is anywhere becoming a top class keeper, but that's the way it is with keepers.

Meanwhile one of  " the big money clubs " will  buy him (whilst paying enough to give us a small profit)  and then put him on their bench for few more years,

whilst " the world class keeper "  he would be understudying, stays put as their number one choice.  

Then we have to find a suitable substitute who can handle life in the Prem. or (worst case scenario) ..continuing in the Championship for a year or two more.

 

However, we are back to the same situation (presently one of the youngest squads in our league), with a group of young talents who have to make

their way - in whatever league we end up in.   If Bazunu were to move on - we might have to give Lumley a run, or even the Polish keeper Lis, who is

presently on loan in Turkey, the alternative is  " back to square one " and buy the most promising keeper... in the Championship, or even L1.  

[gammon cheeks]

Simple equation is that he cant save much but is good at passing out from the back ..................which means he is SHIT!

[Wade Garrett]

If it’s so important for the keeper to be good with his feet, then put Shea Charles in goal.

It’s a ridiculous defence of Bazunu.  

[david in sweden]

12 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

In isolation I had no issue what so ever with us purchasing Bazunu 2 seasons ago, but.....it needed to be in combination with a seasoned goalkeeper. Bazunu as a L1 keeper the year before wouldn't have had any expectations to be a starter in the PL, so he becomes the backup/cup goalkeeper and he learns from the more seasoned pro.

That's how it should have been done, but the way we put all our eggs into the kid goalkeeper, kid CB, kid CM etc was absolutely nuts. It's the same argument as above, no issues with signing kids in isolation but they can't be your key men...let them have some time to fricking develop.

As a club we get full ourselves, we did under Reed/Kruger and also under Semmens. They probably still spend most nights patting themselves on the back regarding Tino livramento, but that signing alone wasn't justification to go and fill the squad with potential Tino's the following season. It's arrogance bordering on stupidity. 

We got full of ourselves after Koemans first season as well - we thought we'd cracked football, we thought we'd cracked that 10-15m player bracket but were totally ignorant to prices going up and inflation. This club runs me down sometimes because they do the most dumb fuck things, all self inflicted because they like to think they're different than anyone else.

Yes Clarkie, it's easy to get enthusiastic about good youngsters, but it takes time that we don't have for them to become first-choice names on the team sheet.

Looking back 10 years, Koeman gave us a couple of great seasons (even after the departure of Lambert, Lallana and Co.)  as he bought in 9 players (?),  many  

of whom had previously played for him at some stage in the past. A few missed the mark, but the real successes of his teams were;   Pelle,  Mane and Tadic. 

Many of the later "Reed signings " were less than adequate for the task they were purchased for,  and the manager's office needed a revolving door, to 

accommodate successive foreign manages who struggled with the Engllsh language, and an inability to adapt the players to  " their favourite playing formation ".

 

I'm not sure if this thread has developed into a criticism of Bazunu, or Russell Martin for continuing to select him, but there are other factors to be considered.

Bazunu was the first choice keeper when RM arrived, which is more than can be said for half of our present side, who were still only names in a  scout's notebook

when he walked through the door in the summer.  There have been some costly mistakes / decisions, but I think it's wrong to put the blame solely on the shoulders

of Bazunu, or Martin.   Unfortunately, this has been the most competitive season at the top of the table for many years, in any other season - we might even be top.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, david in sweden said:

.and you're right Turkish.  It may take another 5 years before Bazunu is anywhere becoming a top class keeper, but that's the way it is with keepers.

Meanwhile one of  " the big money clubs " will  buy him (whilst paying enough to give us a small profit)  and then put him on their bench for few more years,

whilst " the world class keeper "  he would be understudying, stays put as their number one choice.  

Then we have to find a suitable substitute who can handle life in the Prem. or (worst case scenario) ..continuing in the Championship for a year or two more.

 

However, we are back to the same situation (presently one of the youngest squads in our league), with a group of young talents who have to make

their way - in whatever league we end up in.   If Bazunu were to move on - we might have to give Lumley a run, or even the Polish keeper Lis, who is

presently on loan in Turkey, the alternative is  " back to square one " and buy the most promising keeper... in the Championship, or even L1.  

Surely if Baz moves on we buy a new keeper who can make saves?

[saintant]

The next fan's forum could be interesting if RM and Baz are still in their current roles. 

[Turkish]

6 minutes ago, saintant said:

The next fan's forum could be interesting if RM and Baz are still in their current roles. 

I wonder if anyone will quote the fact he's been statistically the worst keeper in the division for the second season running.