Brad Guzan

[Dave]

I'm not sure that we need to worry too much about the money that he would or wouldn't be earning.

When he joined us from Chivas he was probably earning £50,000 per year, if that. He would probably have seen his salary increase twenty times over and still be one of our lowest earners.

I don't think he's going to be worried too much about the contract from a financial perspective, it's just whether he wants to go and play for say, Leicester or Blackpool and be their number one or stay here.

[ozzjim]

I think he has great potential, and is 2 seasons away from our number 1 role. It is then to weigh up maybe 10 games a season for us or number 1 somewhere else and hope to catch the eye of a top club to become their number 1. I am not convinced many clubs in the top division need a keeper, so we might be the best option for him long term.

[SoccerHQ]

Sorry to the poster who mentioned it earlier (too green to remember names...) but yes I wasn't aware that he was out of contract at the end of the season and I thought he had signed a new one. Which makes it even more certain to me that we should cash in if we get the chance. If he is holding out for a better deal I'm not sure it is just about an extra few quid - although that will help. He probably realises that he needs to be playing regularly especially as his main contenders for the US jersey are all getting older.

If he hasn't signed a contract now I think he wants a move and explains why he's playing better than any other time he's come in. He's always had the quality but his weaknesses were always shown up eventually. Which is why he's sitting on the bench more often than not.

This isn't an anti-Guzan thing because if we still had the squad of a few seasons back I think he'd be happy to bide his time and we would be quite happy to get him an extra 5 k a week to warm the bench. Things have moved on now though and I think we need to cut our cloth accordingly. Offer him to someone now, see if they'll bite, if not he'll sit on the bench until the summer with us paying dead money for a reserve. That's the situation that got us to where we are now (albeit in a totally different way I guess).

Your point though was to sell him to raise funds for other areas of the team. Now given he's on a free in the summer, no club (other than maybe Sunderland) will be spending 2-3m on him when they get him for free in the summer.

Obviously I now realise you thought he was on a longer contract here but still a strange post and thread I thought.

[SoccerHQ]

The problem is that every team needs that good number two goalie. It's why Stuart Taylor is probably an exceptionally wealthy man in spite of playing something like 10 games in 5 seasons for us and Man City. Sell Guzan, or not renew his contract and we'll still probably need to find a replacement (especially with Given's injuries) who will command a fee and probably big wages. If Brad fancies trying his hand somewhere else then fair fucks to him. If he's content to sign a new deal then we should give it him.

Taylor isn't even number two at City, they signed some other keeper to be sub to Joe Hart at the start of the season.

The trend for most clubs nowadays is to have three senior keepers in the squad which I always find pretty strange as surely having two main keepers and then a youth learning as number three is better and cheaper as keepers don't tend to get injured that much.

Quite surprised how many prem clubs do this:

Manure have De Gea, Lindegarrd and Kuzczak (who's completely disappared off the face of the earth)

Spurs have Friedel, Cudinici and Gomes.

Arsenal have Sczeseney, Fabianski and Almunia.

Stoke have Sorensen, Nash and Begovic.

Chelsea have Cech, Hilario and Turrnbull

Liverpool have Reina, Doni and Brad Jones.

Sunderland have Mignolet, Westwood and Craig Gordon.

Spurs are the most interesting one there, probably the strongest set of keepers in the league there and all on decent wages you'd imagine but Brad never gets injured so why do they need Cudicini and Gomes?

[SoccerHQ]

Another thing I've just noticed from that list is how many keepers who could play week in week out actually seem comfortable with not playing that much.

Turnbull/Jones both played regularly for Boro in the prem, both seem happy being reserves at big clubs. Someone like Kuzczak and Cudicini could be regulars for a lot of prem clubs but again both seem happy to be number 2/3 where they are now.

Strange breed goalkeeping.

[Ryu]

This is a bit of a non-issue for me.

Every team has a number 2 goalie who doesn't play much, I'm pretty sure most youngish keepers accept it as part of the job. In fact, some make it the basis of their entire career.