QuoteSomewhat ironically, if we were calling up 4 keepers, he'd be getting a call-up for us
Remember him? Called up to the senior team in May before he even had a wikipedia page.
Anyways, he's been called up by Wales now. Qualifies through his dad obviously (well, obviously for those who remember him playing in the LoI back in the day).
A regular for Fleetwood this year - in the English fourth tier.
Somewhat ironically, if we were calling up 4 keepers, he'd be getting a call-up for us
The inexplicable call up looks more now like an attempt to keep him onside. Not sure we will lose any sleep over this one. Good luck to him.
Think that was pretty obviously speculated upon last time. Basically he’s probably a championship level keeper who missed 2 years with injury and was going to be their first choice once fit. But he wasn’t going to get a move on the back of those injuries and not playing. But a League 1 transfer is likely in January or summer if Fleetwood don’t get promoted which looks very unlikely
An understandable situation. Wales are in a desperate state in terms of keepers and we're stacked. May well have come in to that O'Shea squad earlier in the year, seen the standard in front of him first hand and known he was wasting his time in terms of any Ireland prospects.
Would we not have Jack Bonham ahead of him? (Ignoring Bazunu obviously, who's injured)Originally Posted by elatedscum
On the bench for Stoke this year, but plenty of games at Championship level the last couple of years.
Keeley getting games down at Leyton Orient as well now and the fans there have taken to him so far. Always the option to call in a domestic based keeper to fill the third keeper spot as well if ever needed, as it's a training keeper role really. When Kelleher, Bazunu, Travers and O'Leary are all fit the rest are basically contending to be fifth choice. So easy to see why the likes of Harrington and Pym are being pragmatic and settling for Wales and the north.
Just a matter of opinion really. Don’t think Bonham is as good or is really good enough to be an international keeper.
I think you’ve got the 4 we all know and then the two lads that have the ability to potentially be international level or let’s say better than O’Leary are Harrington and probably after him, Luke McNicholas who is currently playing in the conference on loan from Wrexham.
Everton wanted to sign Harrington for half a million before the injury, and there was genuine interest from big teams. Fleetwood were only able to sign him because he had that injury when signing and they basically were willing to give him a big pay increase while having a long term injury. As a result, they’ve got the best keeper in the league by a mile, now that he’s fit.
As for McNicholas, I saw him play first for Cliftonville and then Sligo and he was the best keeper in LOI (Stephen Bradley mentioned on tv while bemoaning the fact that Crawford was playing an injured Maher in a must win game vs Italy that he felt McNicholas was the best keeper in the league and they moved heaven and earth to try sign him but couldn’t compete financially etc with Wrexham). So he signed for Wrexham and was genuinely excellent in the Paint Cup or whatever it’s called now, winning MOTM in his debut against Crewe. Played three games in total and was then sent on loan to Rochdale. He’s started 8 games (currently injured) and in those 8 games he’s only conceded 2 goals - in comparison, in the 8 games he’s missed through injury, they’ve conceded 13 goals…
Harrington is very small for a top level keeper also, similar to Pym, he's barely 6 foot if even that. You need to be absolutely exceptional to make it at a high level as a goalkeeper at 6'0 or under. 6'1 tends to be the absolute minimum for a top level keeper these days, with 6'2 and over being preferred (Kelleher, Bazunu and O'Leary are all 6'2, Travers, Bonham and McNicholas are 6'3).
Agree.
Re Pym, Michael has called up 3 gk's for next week's games - Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Luke Southwood and Pierce Charles. Had Conor Hazard not been injured, I imagine he'd have been in there, instead of Southwood, or possibly Charles.
At the moment BPF is the man in possession, Hazard (when fit) the most likely to challenge him and Southwood the back-up, while Charles (19) could be our future main man.
Either way, it would take the most enormous injury crisis for Pym ever to get an NI cap, with even a place on the bench a rarity (imo).
Last edited by EalingGreen; 08/11/2024 at 5:04 PM.
That's certainly the case in recent years, but with gk's needing to be so much better playing with their feet, you might see future gk's being selected for that ability, even if they're not especially tall.
I'm thinking eg of Arsenal, who dispensed with Ramsdale (1m 90cm/6'3") for David Raya, who's listed as 1m 80 cm/6'0", basically because he (DR) is excellent with his feet. While traditional tall, strong No.9's who are good in the air (eg Haaland or Kane) may now arguably be a dying breed, making the need for tall gk's less pressing, esp if like Arsenal they have big defenders in front of them?
He's listed at 184cm, which is 6 foot and half an inch - if that's accurate, I think it's passable. It would be taller than the likes of David Raya, Keylor Navas, people like that, or slightly more historically Victor Valdes, David Ospina and within a centimetre of Shay Given and Iker Casillas
I always thought Given was hampered a bit by his height. A really agile keeper, but he seemed to concede a lot of goals that you felt a taller keeper might have gotten a hand to. Shots towards the top corner that weren't really right in the top corner, if you know what I mean. Possibly stopped him ever getting a move to a better team than Newcastle. An inch or two can make a huge difference for a keeper.
I agree with that assessment - I also think Shay didn’t have great reach in boxing terms, not a lad with disproportionate arms so to speak and it’s very possible that with just 1cm between them that Harrington has a bigger wing span. Also worth saying, Shay was probably our best ever keeper and it’s a long way from being our greatest keeper to being not good enough to make it at international level and it’s not a single cm. Take a cm off Shay and he still wipes the floor with Bonner, Kelly, Randolph, Forde, Westwood, Keeley etc etc
Dean Kiely not Josh Keeley
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