Sam Johnstone - now retired

[mr underhill]

well yes, but your post  just serves to reinforce the fact that he raises more questions than he answers - Gollini was no worse and had the advantage of being our player

[Clark W Griswold]

Gollini wanted to move back as pointed out, I suppose we had little choice but to move him on. Bruce probably knew this for a while and literally had weeks to sort a replacement. He obviously rates Johnstone and didn't want to go any other way but early signs are this could be one of the biggest cock ups of Bruce's Villa career so far. A bit like Gollini being one of the biggest cock ups of De Matteos Villa career. Hopefully we'll get it right in the summer.

[old man villa fan]

I do not believe Johnstone or Gollini before him, will have cost us promotion.  Yes, they have both made mistakes that have cost us points but defenders have done likewise and, more to the point, what we have failed to do at the other end of the pitch has been our real failure and just magnified the mistakes.

Good keepers cost money because there are not many of them around unless you are one of the top sides.  I still think we are better developing a young keeper in the Championship (assuming we have an option to buy or we persuade Johnstone that he has a good future here).

I would rather give him a chance between now and the end of the season and look at the position then.  I do not believe teams get promoted from this division based on having a top goalkeeper.

[mr underhill]

I think they get promoted because they score more than they concede

[cheltenhamlion]

Bruce doesn't rate Gollini at all is why Johnstone is here.

[frank black]

I do not believe Johnstone or Gollini before him, will have cost us promotion.  Yes, they have both made mistakes that have cost us points but defenders have done likewise and, more to the point, what we have failed to do at the other end of the pitch has been our real failure and just magnified the mistakes.

Good keepers cost money because there are not many of them around unless you are one of the top sides.  I still think we are better developing a young keeper in the Championship (assuming we have an option to buy or we persuade Johnstone that he has a good future here).

I would rather give him a chance between now and the end of the season and look at the position then.  I do not believe teams get promoted from this division based on having a top goalkeeper.

At the moment I wouldn't be trying to persuade him to stay. The bad decision making in respect of getting in a decent  keeper has cost us dear this season.

[Dave]

Bruce doesn't rate Gollini at all is why Johnstone is here.

I think that was pretty obvious by the way he was shipped out so quickly.

But based on what Johnstone has shown so far, it would suggest that Bruce's judgement is somewhat suspect.

[BOB MANSFIELD]

Terrible error for the first goal. Trouble is, his confidence will be in question now.

Watching back on TV, the ball strikes Grealish and deflects away from his predicted position by just enough to make it rebound. I can't criticise that, myself.

[aj2k77]

The ball bounced RIGHT in front of him, his hands were all over the place, it was shit keeping.

[LeeB]

The ball bounced RIGHT in front of him, his hands were all over the place, it was shit keeping.

It was, but he doesn't strike me as a shit keeper. Mind you, neither did the other lad. They're young, they're going to make the odd blunder, but we don't do enough the other end to make it inconsequential

I think we were too quick to give up on Gollini, but I think this lad will be good.

[aj2k77]

How many blunders have our keepers made this season compared to blunders by keepers against us? It's more than the odd blunder.

[LeeB]

How many blunders have our keepers made this season compared to blunders by keepers against us? It's more than the odd blunder.

They haven't had to play behind Elphick, to be fair.

[aj2k77]

As bad as Elphick is I wouldn't blame him for handling errors, bottling crosses or palming the ball in to the middle of the area,

[paul_e]

I'm far from convinced by Johnstone and I think Gollini will be a far better keeper than him in 3-4 years time.  Johnstone looks, to me, like someone who'll end up a bit like Stuart Taylor with a career with 6-7 clubs and another 6-7 loans but with little more than a handful of appearance for most of them, just a perpetual reserve keeper who you trust for a 3-4 game spell but never as a regular.  I might be wrong but there's just nothing about him that makes me think he'll be more than that.

[amfy]

There is a fair bit more to the Gollini situation than meets the eye, and Johnstone has already done a decent season in this division for Preston - they wanted to keep him, so he probably isn't as bad as he has looked whilst settling in.