So it’s the Spanish waiter for another year then…

And it will be a year. Forget the January transfer window, because with Manuel in goal, our season will be pretty much over by then anyway so there will be little point in recruiting before the summer.

Maybe I’m being a little pessimistic, but I really did think that the Schwarzer deal would go through. He was never going to be a long term fix, more a good sticking plaster to cover the gaping wound which is our goalkeeping. Man City were clearly never going to allow Given to join a rival, so Schwarzer was the only real option open.

Or was he? Surely there must be at least a dozen or so better goalkeepers in the Premiership let alone Europe than our bumbling clot between the sticks. He makes Gomes look good, and who would have believed that two seasons back. In normal circumstances it wouldn’t be a problem. But our number 2 is even worse than the bleached blonde. Flappyanski is so bad it scares me to watch him. Proper hide behind the sofa stuff. Beyond them we have two promising but very young keepers. You do not win titles without a great keeper. Simple as that.

So where to now? A comfortable upcoming fixture list looms until we head to the Bridge. Home games v Bolton, Braga and WBA should harvest a full nine points in their respective tournaments. But with our dodgy keepers the trips to Sunderland, Spuds in the Carling Cup, and Partizan in Europe suddenly look a lot more scary than they would have with a decent stopper to marshal our shaky looking back four.

I fear once again our title challenge will fall away during the big games. For us to be serious contenders we have to be beating Chavski, Utd and the Spuds this season. To make things worse Almunia will be aware that any slight mistake he makes will see the fans come down on him very hard in Eboue style.

Eboue himself has fought back well and there is no longer a sigh of “Oh God” when his name is announced on the team sheet. Not sure if Almunia will be so capable of recovery when things go bad.