All of which begs the question of whether Noble, sorry Turnbull, and the other headline waiting to happen, Hilario, are the right back-up for Big Pete in the coming season. I know they were the back-up in our double winning last season, and covered adequately when Cech was out injured (just), but I have to say, they both make me a tad nervous. I have seen Turnbull make some howlers in the reserves, although to be fair he hasn’t let the first team down in a competitive match. Hilario has something of a tendency towards chocolate wrists in my opinion.
Cech does seem to be injured quite regularly these days and indeed, as we all know, will miss the start of the new season and it is the gulf in class between him and the other guys that concerns me. If we had a prolonged period where Cech is injured I really think we could kiss our premiership hopes goodbye.
In my opinion, what we need is an old stager. Someone who is in the autumn of his career, someone who has plenty of premiership experience, and hopefully, someone the crowd can relate to. Someone like,, er, Carlo Cudicini perhaps! Lets face it, with Gomes hitting form for Spurs, it hasn’t exactly turned out to be a dream move for him, has it? He is back to playing second fiddle, so once he has regained full fitness after his accident, why not come back and do so in more familiar and comfortable surroundings, amongst friends, for a club who’s fans appreciate and admire him?
Our friends here at Blue Tinted seem pretty certain that it was the intention to let Hilario go this summer anyway. We have signed the promising Croatian lad Delac and maybe we just need someone to fill in for a couple of years until this lad is ready (Not sure Rhys Taylor will be good enough, and what’s happened to Jan Sebek?). If my disaster scenario of Cech missing a large part of next season played out, I would be much more relaxed to see Carlo as our Custodian.
There are other options amongst the premierships ageing keepers such as Schwarzer or James (has previously helped Chelsea to silverware!), but I am guessing they are not likely to want to be bench-warmers for us.
Returning to Amsterdam, not a great performance by our youngsters, but up against a more experienced side who were a couple of weeks further into their training regime, so nothing to worry about. Sturridge has looked really confident and sharp in the two friendlies, and scored a very good goal against Ajax, although his decision making wasn’t great against Palace. The other lad to catch my eye over both games was Matic.
His distribution was generally excellent and in both games and he played with a calm authority that really impressed me. I can see this kid making it in our first team if given the chance. Mind you, I have said that a few times over the last few years, most recently about Stoch, so what do I know!
See more from Liquidator soon!
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