Tim Howard

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mlyons said:
Cech is awfully close to Shilton's class, though. He's on the back side of his career and some great young goalkeepers have come up through the ranks recently, but a few years ago you could easily make the argument that Cech was the best goalkeeper in the world (very close with Casillas and Buffon).

And honestly, yes, I do think Howard's level is pretty close to the best we can get at our current financial level unless we somehow manage to unearth a diamond in the rough like we've done with Stones or Coleman in the past, or spend our whole transfer budget in one go like we did with Lukaku. There's a big gap between the top goalkeepers in the world (De Gea, Neuer, Courtois, Lloris, etc.) and all of the other ones, and I don't think there's a whole lot of difference among all the keepers on that second tier. They're all inconsistent enough that there's going to be a lot of variation from season to season, but I don't think the difference in ability among Howard and Ruddy or Adrián or Hennessey or the majority of the rest of the Premier League keepers is all that significant. Now, Howard obviously needs replacing anyway -- I'm pretty sure Sylvain Distin is the only regular starter in the Premier League who's older than Howard -- but I don't think it would be terribly helpful to make a panic bid in January to get one of those second tier keepers, especially if we have to pay through the nose to get him.

I wouldn't have any problem with giving Robles a run in the first team in the short term (I have a sneaking suspicion he's really not good enough to play at this level, but if Martinez decides he's looking good enough in training to get a shot, I'd be all for it), but long term I think we're going to have to be extraordinarily lucky to get a goalkeeper who can make the kind of difference to the team that you're talking about.
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We'll have to agree to disagree on this one! We've already signed a much better goalie than Howard when we signed Martyn. Goalkeepers tend to be a lot cheaper to sign than strikers and we spent £28 million on Lukaku. For example Lloris cost Spurs €10 million upfront and I consider him a big improvement on Howard. So we can afford a better goalie and the manager should have sorted it out by now.
 
as one of his biggest critics, i didn't really think he was at fault for any goals tbh, he couldn't win with the pen incident, if he stayed on his line vardy was miles ahead of the defence and had all the time in the world. he didn't even foul him anyway. vardy just saw him there and jumped into him. every keeper would come rushing out in that situation. we defended poorly and that's what let us down. His flap from that cross by HT was abysmal though.
 
noel early said:
If he continues with Howard it will eventually get him the sack..

Right now that might not be the worse thing in the world.

Can't continue with this blind loyalty to certain players or his naive style of play.

Really if a Kopite manager came out with results don't matter line only performances, then we would slaughter him. Bobby your turning into a massive disappointment.
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tbf they do seem to be lauding klopp as the second coming of jesus after a string of results that martinez could only produce in his worst hours.
 

jceverton said:
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one! We've already signed a much better goalie than Howard when we signed Martyn. Goalkeepers tend to be a lot cheaper to sign than strikers and we spent £28 million on Lukaku. For example Lloris cost Spurs €10 million upfront and I consider him a big improvement on Howard. So we can afford a better goalie and the manager should have sorted it out by now.
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Well, Martyn was a 36-year-old who was out of contract, wasn't he? I guess something like that could happen again. A Bosman might be a good answer.
 
@mlyons i'd like to throw a few names in here as well:

Handanovic - Inter Milan Free agent in summer

Simone Scuffet -- Udinese currently on loan (ideally a backup)

Timo Horn -- Cologne £6.5mil release clause

Loris Karius -- Mainz would be under £10mil

Kepa Arrizabalaga -- Bilbao (ideally a backup)

Gianluigi Donnarumma - Milan (only 16 but first choice) £20-30mil

Jack Butland -- Stoke £20-25mil


I think we should go all out for Butland, Ive said before that hes better than Hart and will take over as Englands number 1 after the Euros....i think hes brilliant.

Horn is the cheap option first choice and Handanovic is of course a free agent. Couple of backup keepers there as well with massive potential who we could sign and loan out to get exprience like what happened with Butland.

Donnarumma is far fetched lol but imagine having a 16 year old in goal as highly rated as him...no idea how much he would cost, perhaps we could even give them Mirallas + cash and keep him there on loan for a season or two like Chelsea did with Courtois if we got Handanovic in the meantime on a free?

Anyway, a lot of options there and these are just off the top of my head, Martinez has a global scouting network.



jceverton said:
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one! We've already signed a much better goalie than Howard when we signed Martyn. Goalkeepers tend to be a lot cheaper to sign than strikers and we spent £28 million on Lukaku. For example Lloris cost Spurs €10 million upfront and I consider him a big improvement on Howard. So we can afford a better goalie and the manager should have sorted it out by now.
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The thing that baffles me most about Martinez sticking by Howard no matter what Joel does in the Cup, and no matter how many mistakes Howard makes, go back to his last season with Wigan. Al Habsi was Wigan's first choice, Robles played in the domestic Cup games. He played against us at Goodison in the quarter final. By the time they played the semi final against Millwall, Robles was doing so well, and Al Habsi had lost it a bit, that it was Al Habsi who played in the semi, as Joel was then the first choice keeper, his performances in the Cup run had earned as much. Al Habsi played in the League game before they beat us in the quarters when they lost 4-0 at home to Liverpool, then never made another appearance in the League until the final day when relegation had already been confirmed.

I just dont understand how Martinez could be so fair with Joel there, but he just refuses to give him a go ahead of Howard. It doesnt even have to be a casting Howard out and never ever playing him again kind of dropping. It can just as easily be a giving him a break to get his head right and take a bit of pressure off kind of dropping. Martinez really doesnt seem capable of that since he's been here though. Both Barry and Barkley could have done with the same kind of dropping last season as their form was well off, but he persisted with both no matter how terrible they are. He did it with Howard too last season, leaving him in for the Cup game at Swansea after 2 howlers against Palace, and he put in another terrible performance there too. A player cant always just keep on going and play himself back into form, sometimes he needs taking out of the team to do it.
 


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