Battle to replace Jens hotting up…
31 comments December 21st, 2006
With Jens Lehmann heading towards the end of his contract and possibly his career, it’s not surprising that we’re already being linked with a sucession of goalkeepers. After Gigi Buffon and Craig Gordon in the summer, we now have Artur Boruc and Igor Akinfeev.
Boruc is the 25-year old Celtic goalkeeper, and a Polish international. He had a very impressive World Cup, keeping the likes of Jerzy Dudek and Man Utd’s Tomasz Kuszcack (I have guessed a) the spelling of his name, and b) that he is Polish) out the side. Although there doesn’t seem to be much in his agent’s quote, I’m a big fan of the stopper, and between he and Gordon, would be delighted for us to pluck a goalie from Scottish football.
Igor Akinfeev is “delighted to have a club of such calibre” interested in him, and we should be as delighted about him saying that. At only 20-years old, he is firmly established as CSKA Moscow’s goalkeeper. After playing in the first-team since the age of 17, he is widely regarded as the next Iker Casillas: a hugely experienced veteran in spite of his tender years.
Whether or not Lehmann signs a new contract, we’ll still be looking for a new ‘keeper come the summer. Let’s just hope we don’t have to deal with being linke with every Tom, Dick, and Igor like we were when Seaman left.
The Carling Cup Quarter-final has been arranged for January 9th. That’s two cup-ties at Anfield in the space as three days. Scousealicious.
Let’s end on a positive note: Arsene Wenger still thinks we can win the title, and Emmanuel Adebayor believes we are “the future of English football”. The latter being somewhat more credible.
