Would Spurs fans really shed any tears over his exit?
PSV Eindhoven’s sporting director Marcel Brands, has come out this week, stating that Tottenham Hotspur‘s Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes wants a return to the Dutch outfit, that he spent four years with before joining the Lilywhites. Gomes has had a mixed season for the North London side, mainly turning in solid performances but in the run in to the climax of this Premier League season the keeper has shown signs of returning to his error prone ways. Despite the clangers and the reports, Harry Redknapp is adamant that he is not looking to offload the shot stopper, but if these rumours were to become true, would Spurs really care absolute losing their current number one?
It would be easy for me to go “No, thanks for reading.” but obviously, there is more to any debate in football. A good goalkeeper earns you 6-8 points a season, yeah I know that’s only two wins but that would have meant this season that Newcastle would have finished eighth instead of twelfth and Wigan would have finished tenth as opposed to sixteenth, they are just some examples. Off the top of my head I’ll admit I’m struggling to see where Gomes has earnt Spurs points this season but when you consider that Tottenham have earnt 24 points this season from losing position, surely Gomes had a say in the keeping his side in those games?
Shall I list all the mistakes the keeper has made? We all know the cock ups,Chelsea, Real Madrid and most notably Blackpool. I say most notably Blackpool because that two penalties scenario, exemplified Gomes perfectly. An impressive penalty save, followed almost instantly with the bizarre decision to bring down Gary Taylor-Fletcher, for another penalty which Blackpool scored to take the lead; the do’s and dont’s of goalkeeping in one movement.
I think the real issue Spurs fans and ‘Arry face, is in their heart of hearts they know Spurs need to move Gomes on to pastures new, but who do they replace him with? Cudicini was always only ever going to be back up, and the best goalkeepers from Europe are all linked with Manchester United‘s vacant goalkeeping spot. Ben Foster provides a option that, with all due respect to the Birmingham keeper, a Spurs of about five years ago would have happily signed, not this team, one chasing Champions League football. There is also Brad Friedel to consider and should Redknapp persuade the former Liverpool keeper to move to White Hart Lane, he would merely only be a short term option. Outside of those two options, who do Tottenham realistically sign to benefit their European aspirations?
Spurs fans at the moment have a case of, ‘the best of a bad bunch’. Until Manchester United take their ‘pick’. Gomes will remain at Tottenham, with Spurs fans crossing their fingers that United don’t take up until two minutes before the transfer window closes to sign Edwin Van Der Sar’s replacement.
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I’d like to see us go for Begovic of Stoke. We nearly signed him when he left Portsmouth, and at 23, and probably half the price of a big name keeper, I think he’d be an excellent addition.
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Gomes has made a few highly public gaffes but given the right tuition by an experienced goalkeeping coach could turn out to be a real diamond. He makes world class saves time and again but has two problem areas 1. His punching clear invariably falls to an opposing attacker. 2. Catching a shot from distance (when the ball is likely to deviate).
Gomes is at his best at close range where his agility and lightening reflexes come to the fore. I would suggest a summer spent working 1 to 1 with Tim Sherwood and our Academy youth and i think we could produce the best keeper in the premiership, i work as a sports psychologist and firmly believe that the basic 4c`s is all he would then require (Concentration,Confidence,Control and Commitment). To be honest that`s all most of our squad required this season. If the fielded players had played to their ability or even 80% throughout we would have easily gained CL qualification.
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Enorme Nuez Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Actually one of the most sensible remarks read here in sometime.
As I’ve always said, all that people throw in the hat as a potential replacement aren’t adequate. The only realistic acquisition is Ben Foster as Birmingham will want to purge their wage bill. Begovic isn’t as good, Given is about the same, just more vocal. Given has also sat for an entire season, so who is to say if he has digressed.
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Shay Given is the man for the job
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Enorme Nuez Reply:
May 27th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
I highly doubt Citeh will let Given go to Spurs or Ar5ena1. Celtic are supposedly sniffing around…maybe they’ll take Robbie Keane too?
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Gomes’ problem isn’t even the gaffes to a certain extent, it’s the lack of confidence the defence have in him.
The amount of times I see our back 4 smashing the ball out (losing possession) instead of simply playing it back to him is unreal.
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Gomes killed his Spurs career when he admitted he has a gaff n him and it will happen again. Well it did and it cost us fourth if you add his other gaffs up and his wandering off his line every Player started shooting from distance and Gomes was left clutching fresh air on his six yard line. He cant be coached from cock ups and the only player who calms him was missing for seven months King unless he his back for a game every week. We need to sell Gomes or the weakest Link will keep costing us millions
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I would no longer be sad to see Gomes go. The Chelsea was the final straw for me, he has to go. Besides he has never looked commanding when crosses/corners come in.
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Next bus to woolwich! Reply:
May 26th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
I remember some of his marveloous saves,especially against the arse last season at the Lane to win us the game,can be a great stopper but like Matt,the Chelsea game was the last straw for me.Ok it wassn’t over the line,but it shouldn’t have been within 5 feet of it anyway.Far too error prone.
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Getting rid of Gomes (and a lot of other players ‘Arry is looking to sling out) would only badly harm our chances of CL football in the future.
Gomes makes these errors because people have no faith in him and he is obviously not going to be making good saves when his fans are sarcastically applauding him every time he makes a save.
Some quality coaching and a bit more respect from our fans would be more than enough to turn Gomes around. I’ve met the guy at a gym, he works hard and puts lots of effort into what he does – and sarcastically cheering him won’t help in any way.
Also, Cudicini is a class keeper – he is not ‘just backup’, which he has proven in his last couple of games.
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Gomes to star in the next specsaver ad.
On a serious note, i would rather have someone steady as no. who could make the bread and butter saves rather than someone who couldnt catch a cold but pulls off a spectacular save every now and then. We have gave him more than enough chances and showed faith where only a saint would and now his time is up. If i was one of the other keepers i would be wondering what the hell he had to do before he got dropped.
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As a Rovers fan he won you the game at Ewood.. He was your MOM
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Quite simply he has still earned us more points than just about any other keeper would have. His problem as we all know is that he saves things which other keepers would let in. Those efforts which would be written off by everyone as unstoppable (and as such other keepers dont get blamed for letting them in). In a straight comparisson I still think he’s made more of these world class saves over the season than he’s made howlers.
If we have to replace him then I’d be looking at Al Habsi as the only stand-out keeper this season.
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