Kenny Kan » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:17 am wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:06 am wrote:you have got to be careful when you replace your keeper, especially when you are a high profile club like liverpool or united.
plenty of keepers who looked outstanding between the sticks for other clubs suddenly start to come apart at the seams when the eyes of the world are upon them.
whenever liverpool or united play a game they are watched by hundreds of millions if not billions of people worldwide, those types of figures start to play tricks on keepers minds, not to mention the fact if they make a mistake it will be plastered all over the back of the sunday papers the next morning and be a topic of conversation in factories, building sites and offices up and down the land on monday.
the likes of david james, chris kirkland and brad friedel were all highly rated before they arrived at anfield (and friedel and james did well once they left) but they couldnt handle the pressure here.
united have had the same problem over the years too, the likes of bosnich and bartez looked great before they signed but turned into a bag of nerves once they stepped through the doors at old trafford.
being a keeper at a big club is as much about character as it is about athletic ability.
reina`s form over the past 2 seasons has been sketchy but he does look more like his old self again and make no mistake he will be tough to replace if he does decide to leave.
just because someone looks good for swansea or birmingham means nothing, liverpool and united have never signed a poor keeper, they start to turn into poor keepers AT united and liverpool, not before.
i`d rather he stayed but those comments by his arl fella dont sound too promising.
I understand what you're saying about Keepers at LFC and that other club. But the scaremongering amongst it all, shouldn't put us off looking for a new keeper. We'll have to move on at some point and we may as well start that now, while Pepe is flirting with the idea of Barca or another club. His performances have been of underachievement over the last 2yrs and it's only sensible and logical that we begin to make inquiries into other keepers.
as keepers go pepe is still relatively young, especially when you consider the likes of van der saar, freidel, david james etc who all played on past 40, infact pepe has probably still got as many years at the top level left in him as say hendo.
i wouldnt worry about his loss of form either, it`s happened to every player that`s ever laced up a pair of boots, if you play footy for well over a decade like pepe has sooner or later your form is going to fluctuate at some point.
i`d leave it up to reina, if he wants to leave then so be it but i wouldnt be looking to engineer a move or be rushing to bring anyone in.
i certainly hope we dont get vorm, i`m getting fed up of being linked with ex swansea players and chelsea fringe players.