Believe it or not… a Keeper Rant

The main blame for Saturday’s lost points is falling into the hands of one man. And probably out of them?



Believe it or not… a Keeper Rant

Almunia: The transfer window non-activity chickens are coming home to roost


Another Saturday game and more points lost through abject goalkeeping, which is often characterised as Sunday morning, but would insult those who stagger out of the boozer late at night and hang around between the sticks hung over and bleary eyed.

ManU, Man City, West Ham, Porto, Stoke FA - this season’s list of dishonour grows as do the frowns of Sol Campbell and William Gallas as they look back at the keeper and written across their brows for all to see is ‘what the hell is going on?’ as another keeper stays rooted to the line like a rabbit caught in the headlights or comes charging out for a ball that the defender has under control.

I don’t even want to think of all the big games we’ve thrown away because of keepers but two stand out – the 2006 European Cup final first goal and the 2009 FA Cup Semi. They left me standing there in disbelief that again we’ve thrown away another trophy because the f****** keeper can’t just do the job he’s paid for.

Probably the greatest manager the Arse has ever had, who has produced football the like of which I feel privileged to have watched over my 50+ years of supporting the club but also a man who cannot buy, produce or motivate a keeper.

He inherited David Seaman and got lucky with ‘one flew over the cuckoo’s net’ Jens but that’s the lot. It’s not even worth listing the others.

By all accounts Shay Given would have walked to the E******s to play for us from Newcastle but ended up at Manchester’s comedy club when Arsene decided our trio of misfits would be good enough.

Perhaps he thought the FA would let them all play at the same time.

If Shay Given was at the back this season I have no doubt we would be six or seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Instead… F***! F***! F***!

Perhaps someone in the Arse should take the great man to one side and tell him we are bringing in a very, very experienced goalkeeping coach and he will decide who we buy and who plays because sure as h*** Arsene Wenger hasn’t got a f**** clue.

Competition result
The winner of our competition to win a free subscription to Arsenal TV Online that we ran last week is Emir Filipovic from Sarajevo in Bosnia. He correctly answered that Mark Chapman, who co-hosted Channel Five’s Football Italia show with Laura Esposto supports Manchester United.


NEW! Subscribe to our weekly Gooner Fanzine newsletter for all the latest news, views, and videos from the intelligent voice of Arsenal supporters since 1987.

Please note that we will not share your email address with any 3rd parties.


Article Rating

Leave a comment

Sign-in with your Online Gooner forum login to add your comment. If you do not have a login register here.