It's a loan with a buy option of around £8m, so they're definitely not signing him purely as backup. It's likely that they see him as a contender for the starting jersey at a minimum. Whether he's good enough to take it from Bazunu permanently remains to be seen.
Gavin is under contract until June 27 according to transfer market. Maybe trying to sell him this month while he has a bit of time left on his contract ?Originally Posted by Eirambler
If they were doing that I wouldn't be too disappointed to see a well coached Premier League team buy him as a backup keeper. Gavin has always been keen to play and be a first choice, but between the injuries and the lack of progression in his goalkeeping skills, that has probably been to his detriment. He could honestly benefit from a couple of seasons developing out of the spotlight behind an established keeper before going for a number 1 spot again. He still has time on his side.
Three shots on target for Boro so far, and they're 3-0 up. If that Peretz deal goes ahead (it's not confirmed yet), there's no way he's not getting at least some game time.
Edit - at fault for Browne's fourth now. Nightmare stuff. Really needs to get out of the club and make a new start somewhere else I think. But it could mean dropping a level.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 04/01/2026 at 4:42 PM.
4-0 now
First goal - not his fault
Second goal - seemed to go through him, no idea how it went in so centrally from quite a tight angle with Bazunu on his line.
Third goal - probably not his fault but he couldn't have gone to ground earlier than he did, not sure what he was at.
Fourth goal - failed to hold a tame enough shot and Alan Browne tapped in the rebound.
Not good at all.
Edit - have seen a better angle of the second goal now and it really did go through him, very poor for the second and fourth goals in particular. Really poor stuff unfortunately, hopefully Kelleher (who has been excellent as usual today) stays fit and available but we have a huge drop off below him now if he's ever missing.
Last edited by Eirambler; 04/01/2026 at 4:56 PM.
It's somewhat ironic that if we go back a year or two we felt we had an embarrassment of riches with keepers...Kelleher staying fit it beyond crucial at this stage. I don't remember him ever having any injury issues so I'll run off now and touch a pile of firewood
He had injury problems when breaking through into the Liverpool squad initially I think. Minor stuff, but it often came at a time when he might have gotten first-team minutes
The highlights from the Southampton game are worrying. Can't see too many interested clubs if, as appears likely, he loses his place this month.
And right on cue pineapple stu is back with the criticism. Nothing about the performance of Bazunu in the previous couple of games where he saved Southampton's bacon.
Bazunu was far from the biggest problem Southampton had yeasterday - the entire team were a hot smelly mess. TTHey were as bad as Will Still's worst of games. After winning six out of his first seven, Eckart has now gone six games on the bounce without a win (with a game against a resurgent Hull in a couple of weeks). He needs to figure out what they were doing right in the first few weeks and what has gone wrong since the middle of December.
One thing I do agree with is that it would be Bazunu's interest to get out of Southampton - but that is easier said that done - he needs to be careful about where he ends up (just like Ferguson)
I suppose those are the games where, with a better keeper, the scoreline would have been kept less embarrassing. Brentford have had a few games this season where Kelleher has spared them a drubbing. Sometimes being in a defensively weaker team can be good for a keeper as it gives him a chance to showcase his skills. Unfortunately for Bazunu it only seems to highlight his weaknesses.
I was a huge Bazunu fan and for a long time thought he'd end up being the most successful out of him Kelleher and Travers. I'm not going to completely give up on a 23 year old keeper either, but there's no getting away from the reality that this is his fourth successive poor season since he signed for Southampton (including a loan move to Belgium so it can't be all Southampton's fault). I feel like he needs much better coaching than he has been getting but, even then, there are issues that it just might not be possible to fix.
Well there are two games in the past week that Southampton would have lost if it had not been for the performance of Bazunu.
It is not true that he has had four poor seasons - the first season was a disaster all round for Southampton - no one on that team deserved credit for anything. He was decent and sometimes good in the Championship season - and then suffered a horrendous injury - and I will reiterate again, a very serious injury for a goalkeeper (especially one so young) with a minimum of a year recovery and at least another year or two to get back to full health and fitness. This year I would argue he has had more good games than bad ones - and it is worth noting that the decent run of form for Southampton happened after his reinstatement in goal.
We are looking at a 23 year old keeper who lost a year of his development to serious injury - and who has been in the worst possible situation for a young goalkeeper in English football that is probably possible over the last four years - a club in tourmoil, a constant stream of managers, none who knew how to defend, the yo-yo of relegation/promotion and the disruption it causes to the squad - and the injury - an injury that still hasn't fully healed. His development has been seriously distrupted for such a young player and it could have potentially broken him completely. Now - keep this in mind - this 23 year old kid has played 23 games in the PL, 60 games in the Championship and 8 games in Belgium's top division.
Is Peretz coming in as competition - maybe - but this is a keeper who is two years older and in the last two and a half years has played the sum total of 4 games at the same level as Bazunu - one when he replaced Neuer when he was sent off and then the next three when Neuer was suspended (which included one of only two losses they had last season - and he was poor and indecisive in that game) and this season he couldn't get a game in a bad Hamburg side while on loan. Now Peretz may do the job - you don't get signed by Bayern Munich unless you are pretty decent - and he has had two and a half years of uninterrupted development in Munich - so we'll see what happens.
Remember - I goalkeeper peaks at the age of 28-30 - given Bazunu's age and the disruption to his development it could be 7 or more years before we see how good he can be - and that is taking into account that he is a good bloody goalkeeper now.
I think more than that - if he saves the second shot (which he really should; you're right that the reverse angle view shows it as a howler that goes right through him) the score stays 1-0 and Southampton are still in a game. 2-0 and heads can drop.
This is exactly it. I'm amazed (well, at this stage maybe I'm more mildly amused) that JRG can still pretend that the issues are all defending and nothing is Bazunu's fault. His weaknesses have been there for a long time at this stage and it seems like they're just not going away. It's his third year in a row being absolutely rock bottom of the main goalkeeping stats (the irony that Sports Republic, who own Southampton, are a data-driven operation is particularly ****ing off Southampton fans on their forum), and the fourth year was the loan spell in Belgium which didn't go particularly well either.
When did I ever claim that 'the issues are all defending and nothing is Bazunu's fault' ?
The problem with you is you only see the mistakes (mistakes that all goalkeepers can and do make) - and you never give him an ounce of credit for anything good that he does.
As for him being bottom of the stats for three years (and then a fourth year in Belgium) - well that is utter bullsh*t given that he missed an entire year with a very serious injury.
Like I said before - for whatever reason - you don't do anything but criticise - I don't think there has ever been an acknowledgement of anything good that Bazunu has done (including saving Southampton from defeat against Birmingham and Millwall in the past week). What is the bloody obsession with doing down a young kid who has been in such a series of bad situations over the past four years and is still trying to learn his craft.
The Championship is probably the 4th or 5th biggest league in the world and all the teams in it particularly recent PL teams like Southampton can sign the best Keepers in the World, Id be inclined to back the judgement of the people keeping Bazunu as starting first choice keeper.
Southampton fans views are coloured by results rather than performances which is not unusual for fans
The Southampton coaches have access to all the Stats as well and clearly are of the opinion that they arent reflective of Bazunus worth.
As the saying goes there are lies, damn lies and statistics
I’d say Bazunu would find a trip to his proctologist less intrusive and forensic than reading this thread.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
These are the people who are going off offering €8.5m for a new keeper remember. And who also signed Ramsdale last year.
Ferguson ended up in a team fighting for the title in Italy, that is a good spot for any footballer to end up in
And here is more BS - Southampton are not offering €8.5m for Peretz - they are offering to take him on loan for a fee of €400K and the option to buy for €8m at the end of the loan. That is also contingent on Hamburg agreeing to a buyout of the loan fee they paid Bayern last summer (effectively they want all their money back).
As for Ramsdale - Southampton bought him in August 2024 - when Bazunu was three months into a 12 month rehab on his achilles injury. Now Ramsdale is a good keeper - Southampton paid €25m for him and he is still their player (Newcastle paid Southampton £4m loan fee for the season - where he was brought in as a back-up for Nick Pope - and once Pope recovered from his injury last week he was back in goal again after Ramsdale's seven match run). Ramsdale has a £20m release clause in his contract but nobody was willing to pony up that amount of money - being at Southampton has damaged more than one players reputation - Ramsdale let in something like 70 goals in the 30 PL games he played for Southampton (Bazunu conceded 56 in his 32 PL games).
Last edited by Jolly Red Giant; 05/01/2026 at 10:30 PM.
He is still a Brighton player unless Roma are willing to part with €40m for him. Overall Ferguson is in a better situation than Bazunu - but he probably does need to leave Brighton at this stage.
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