Gavin Bazunu G Southampton b.2002

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.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

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.

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You've been consistent with your opinion on him Stu thats for sure :) It reminds me a bit of my opinion of Idah a few years ago, I really didnt see the hype. I've changed that now, I think hes going to be a good player.

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 :)

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

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 :)

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I do think he could play in Championship easily, theres a lot of meh! in Championship

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

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021...mouth-on-loan/

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Originally Posted by John83

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021...mouth-on-loan/

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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