'The Dying Art Of Orgasmic
Goalkeeping'
By David Icke
THE SIGHT of Neville
Southall, XXL shirt tight around his stomach, playing in
the Premiership last Sunday amused many and saddened a
few too. For myself - and I'm well aware that these may
be the ramblings of a man reminiscing about some golden
age that never really existed - it just made me think of
six words: Where have all the keepers gone?
With all respect to
Southall - an immense presence in his heyday, now merely
immense - it speaks volumes for the state of British
goalkeeping that at 41 and clearly out of shape, he can
appear at the highest level. It's a strange fact, it
seems to me, that the more sophisticated goalkeeping
coaching has become, the more the quality has fallen.
Back in the 1960s and
1970s, as I know from experience, there was virtually no
goalkeeping coaching or specialised training at
professional clubs. I had arguments with coaches and
managers at clubs I played for when I demanded that I be
given training suitable for a goalkeeper and not just the
same as the outfield players were getting. Running around
a field or playing five-a-sides does not help you catch
crosses.
One of the very few
goalkeeping coaches in those days was Bert Williams, the
former Wolves and England keeper, whom Coventry City used
once a week for a short time. But he was such a rarity
then.
Today the top clubs
employ goalkeeping coaches on their staff and Bob Wilson
at Arsenal has been a pioneer of this. So goalkeepers
should be getting better, right? It is only logical. But,
in my view, they are not.
In the late Sixties, if
you made a list of quality goalkeepers, as opposed to
adequate or good ones, there would have been a fair few
names: Gordon Banks, Ron Springett, Peter Bonetti, Peter
Shilton, Gordon West, and so on, with Ray Clemence soon
to emerge.
But, despite all the
specialist coaching, how many would be on the same list
today? At his best, Arsenal's David Seaman, but he is not
in the class of a Banks or a Shilton. Then there is Nigel
Martyn of Leeds, who in my view has been for at least two
years the foremost keeper in British football, though he
is still no Banks or Shilton. Finally, I'll suggest a
name that might surprise some people - David James at
Aston Villa... although I do have a number of
reservations about him.
After Seaman, Martyn,
and James, you are hitting the good rather than the
quality, people like Ian Walker and perhaps, again at his
best, Mark Bosnich at Manchester United. But his
all-round game is too inconsistent for him to be
considered really top class. After that, you are
immediately into the merely adequate. I repeat, where
have all the keepers gone?
Of them all, none had
more potential than James. He has everything: good build,
extremely athletic, very quick on his feet. I first saw
him as a youngster playing for Watford and he looked
tremendous, a real find.
But because of what
goes on between the ears, his potential has remained
simply that. His tendency to brain-fade, and therefore
commit comic-strip errors, has plagued his career and
that's been so sad because this guy could be the
business. He can't get into the England squad and yet
with his ability he should be a permanent fixture. His
failure to be so is down to him and his own psyche.
What has made the story
of James so disappointing to me is that there are so few
keepers around of orgasmic ability for a connoisseur like
myself to savour. Oh yes, there are some good
shot-stoppers, some who are good in the air, and others
who read the game well and act as a sweeper within their
defensive systems. But rarely do I see the total package.
Goalkeeping is not just
about stopping shots. It is about dominating the area,
dealing with crosses consistently, not staying at home
trembling on the line, or flapping at them like a
grandma. It is standing up tall and challenging the
striker to beat you, rather than dropping to the floor
early and inviting the guy to hit the target you have so
conveniently opened for him. It is organising the
defenders around you and therefore reducing the number of
times your heroics are required. It is holding the ball
whenever possible and not palming it back into danger. It
is distributing decisively to counter-attack (Peter
Schmeichel at Manchester United was superb at this).
The nearest I have seen
to the 'package' in my lifetime are Gordon Banks and
Peter Shilton, both Leicester goalkeepers, of course,
whom I was privileged to see week after week as a
youngster. Indeed I followed Shilton into the Leicester
schools team and have known him since he first joined
Leicester City. Schmeichel came close, also, to the
'package', but Shilton was, for me, the finest exponent
of the art I have yet seen.
He was the best
15-year-old goalkeeper, the best 25-year-old (apart from
a lean spell at Stoke City), the best 30-year-old when he
reached his peak, and certainly the best 40-year-old when
he ended his England career in the Italy World Cup of
1990. That is a timeline of consistency that makes him
one of the all-time greats of world football in any
position.
It is true that
goalkeeping is harder today. The ball moves in the air
far more than it used to, players have learned to add
spin and dip, and crosses are no longer predictably aimed
high to the far post. But Shilton coped with all these
developments and those great keepers of the past would
have done so also.
There is no-one around
that comes close to him today and scanning the leading
sides I can't see yet where the next Shilton is coming
from, or even anyone close.
But, as a goalkeeping
addict, I hope that such a man emerges very soon. Any
ideas?
HAVE YOUR SAY...
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