Sounds very diplomatic like...
Printable View
well i'm sure we all hope thats true
Has been left on the bench the last three games now, and Rochdale have conceded twice.
Five points off survival with six games to go - you wonder is Bazunu's season over now?
I'd imagine so. With a youngster on loan like that and given their situation it probably makes a lot more sense for the club to test their own resources to see if they need a new keeper next season. So far their own player seems to have stepped up and it hasn't hurt their results so they might as well stick with him.
It has been a wonderful season for Gavin all the same! His replacement Lynch at fault for goal today so will see if he sneaks back in before the end of season. Lynch still hasn’t signed contract extension so clearly there are some added politics here as Rochdale try to secure him for next season
I am still not convinced by Gavin. Travers got caught. Bazunu got lucky. We need experienced gloves as number 1
This season, plus 6 for Rovers.
38 according Wikipedia as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_...eer_statistics
Burton (Managed by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink) apparently want to take Bazunu on loan for next season. Would put him in competition with Kieran O'Hara for a place in the starting eleven, although you'd certainly fancy Bazunu to win that battle.
Likely to go out on loan again next season, potentially at a higher level:
https://www.the42.ie/gavin-bazunu-4-5459187-Jun2021/
Being linked with a loan move to Portsmouth as a replacement for the departing Craig MacGillivray.
https://extra.ie/2021/06/20/sport/so...tsmouth-bazunu
Ideally he can get a club close to Manchester to enable him to continue to train a couple of days a week at one of the worlds best clubs. That was the plan at rochdale given the proximity to Manchester but COVID wrecked that. Portsmouth too far away. Championship loan close to Manchester would be the perfect scenario. The regular on site presence at Manchester city would be important and allow coaching staff to monitor him closely and iron out any bad habits he’s developing in the lower leagues
Several sources (Hampshire Live, FLW, Pundit Arena) claiming this pm that Man City and Pompey have agreed the loan signing.
Portsmouth are a bit of a strange one - their keeper was Player of the Year last year, and an ever-present. Had been with the club three seasons, played 135 games, called up by Scotland - and then got released on a free, only to join Charlton, who had finished literally one place about them in the league. It'd be interesting to know why they did that - it seems they were unable to agree a new deal, but you'd hardly imagine Charlton would be offering much more than Portsmouth as they're both similar-sized clubs. Is it that he was a big earner and they felt his salary would be better apportioned across a squad? But then he signed from Shrewsbury three years ago; you'd have thought they'd have had bigger earners.
They've only one keeper left after the summer, and the manager has said the reserve keeper (who was first-choice for a few months in 2019/20) has a "great opportunity" to re-establish himself as number 1 (but then he would say that) and that he was looking to bring in two new keepers, including a youngster as third choice (and you would hope that's not going to be Bazunu!)
August/September will be interesting anyway if Gavin does go there.
Surely he has assurances that he will start as number 1, otherwise it’s quite a foolish move. No doubt game time is incorporated into his loan conditions and Man City won’t be long recalling him if he spends a protracted amount of time on bench. Good move, only downside is he won’t be able to spend regular time with the top class coaches at man city to help fine tune things. He’s taking the opposite route to development compared to Caoimhin!! Best of luck to him!
Yeah, it's hard to see he'd be the number 3 alright. I think even if you got assurances of being number 1, a keeper is often just a couple of blunders away from the bench. Bazunu knows this of course, and Portsmouth did the same thing in 19/20.
The other concern about releasing your PotY of course is is it financial? They've had a big churn and if it's for financial reasons (due to covid say) then they may struggle. And that wouldn't be great either.
But lookit - time will tell!
Im disappointed with this move. I would have expected him to get a Championship move after getting the International caps, you would expect that would boost his profile a bit more.
He's made too many errors to be disappointed at not moving up a division.
He was dropped by Rochdale like. Championship clubs won't like that.
We need perspective here. If he can get a full season at Portsmouth, he'll have done very well for himself.
Yeah. I'd take that. Much better side then Rochdale even within that context and surely their defence is far better.
He has great potential, for sure. But right now there's no point pretending he's a Championship-standard keeper. He's shown nothing to indicate that. Which is fine, cos he's only 19 yet.
Championship managers seem to agree :)
I don't think anything we've seen of him could really back that up unfortunately. (In my view)
I don't think a Championship move was a realistic prospect for him this coming season unless he fancied being a likely number 2. It's easy to forget how young he is - there were no teenage first choice keepers in the Championship last season as far as I'm aware.
I think Portsmouth could be a good move for him, as long as he's going in as first choice. They're one of the better league one sides - realistically that was as good as he was going to get at this stage and it will be really good going for a 19 year old keeper if he's a regular at Portsmouth next season.
I think Pompey is an excellent move for him. To go from an unfancied L1 team to a promotion contender, it has to be considered progress.
If he can establish himself in a winning team who plays out from the back it will be huge for his development. If Bazunu gets 40+ games this season with Randolph and Kelleher only getting a handful of games as #2, he could easily jump the pecking order for Ireland
I like those quotes from the manager. Clearly rates him and has done his homework. I wasn't aware of that point regarding most saves.
On a sidenote, it looks like Bazunu's manager at Rochdale followed him back City's under 23 side- young Barry Murphy lined up to take over as manager. Interesting move and maybe good work with the likes of Bazunu has contributed to the appointment.
On the bench tonight for the EFL Cup game against Millwall. Alex Bass, the reserve from last season, starts, as he did in the league opener on Saturday, keeping a clean sheet.
That's disappointing.
He has been recovering from an injury. Surely he would have started tonight in an EFL Cup game were he 100% fit given that Bass started at the weekend in the league?
He was on the bench both times, so he's presumably mostly over the injury and, yeah, as you say, an EFL Cup game would be an ideal time for a run-out on the way back from injury.
He has the number 1 jersey for this year, but Bass has kept the same number (35) from last year. It's hard to judge a manager's mind from squad numbers these days.
Best case scenario though is he's going to be missing games ahead of the qualifiers in September, and it looks like we won't have a regular starter to play in nets (if we assume Travers is behind Randolph/Kelleher/Bazunu)
That's pretty much the situation we were in a year ago, except now at least we have some confidence in the alternatives to Randolph.
Yeah, that's true - although I suppose with young players, being in the same situation we were a year ago is always a bit disappointing.
Starts today at least. One of four changes