hypochondriac

Our last truly outstanding keeper was Niemi.

All of that contributed. So did Bazunu.

Agreed. Following the club this year will be slightly less interesting and less informed without him.

This. 99% of supporters will agree with this.

Yeah fair enough I misread it. Apologies.

Well my definition of laying it at someone's feet is different to yours.

I agree except that the poster in question was the one who brought it up to try to silence the opinion of someone else.

Good. Sounds like you accept we could have signed other decent options last year. Signing Bazunu as first choice last year was clearly a mistake and contributed to our relegation.

I also disagree that he was the main reason but I could see how someone could come to that conclusion and it's not a ridiculous opinion to hold. Thinking he is the main reason for relegation is also not laying it at his feet because no one thinks he was solely to blame, that would be mental.

So he DID know who you were! Maybe a lesson for you there to post with a bit less confidence that you're correct about everything. Moving back on topic, why did you request a list of goalkeepers that would have been better to sign than Bazunu last year and then fail to follow up when a list was provided?

Hi @Ed Rooney. It seems you're still on this thread considering you're reacting to everything. It seems a little discourteous to ask for a response and then to ignore it when one is provided. You can forgive anyone reading this not to assume that the reason for your sudden disappearance is because @Wade Garrettis actually aware of who you are and so is fully justified at laughing at you attempting to claim some sort of authority because you had an amateur football career.

That's not saying he's the single cause of our relegation at all. He's saying that in his opinion he was the main cause. It's unarguable that he was A cause. I don't necessarily agree that he was the main cause but it's not an outlandish opinion to hold. It's definitely not laying it at his feet as the only cause, that would clearly be ridiculous and no one has done that.

Absolutely. That's just obvious that a keepers job is not solely what he does between the sticks, but how he leads and commands the defensive unit as well and the confidence he instills in his defenders. It's like a striker who always misses so eventually the rest of the team stop passing to him so he effects the rest of the team as well.

Personally I think that's a reasonable opinion to have. I don't necessarily agree with you (particularly the bit about McCarthy) but it's not a mad opinion to hold by any means.

McCarthy is a terrible goalkeeper, I'm not sure you will find anyone who would argue otherwise. Are you suggesting that it was an irrelevance who we had in goal last year? That if we had Ederson we wouldn't have conceded less and gained more points as a result?

So your view is that it's only on here that people think he's not good enough currently to be our number one starting keeper and that his failures last year contributed to our relegation? Because that's the view of pretty much every saints fan I have spoken to.

Please provide the evidence of one poster laying our relegation at the feet of the goalkeeper? That sounds more like extremist rubbish than anyone else has posted on this thread. Literally no one has said that.

What do you make of the fact that statistically he was the worst keeper last year at letting in shots that weren't in difficult areas to save?

It's difficult to discuss hypothetical, but surely you would accept that getting in a more proven and skilled keeper would mor likely result in less goals conceded and more points? Using your logic, it's a bit like saying if we had signed Haaland last year, we wouldn't know for certain that he wouldn't have got us more points than Che.

Why is that ridiculous? Statistically he was the worst goalkeeper in the league last year along with the Leeds keeper. He undoubtedly cost us goals and points due to his own goalkeeping ability and the knock-on effect that has on the players around him. I'm not sure how that can even be argued, even if you accept that it wasn't the main reason for relegation and that lots of other factors combined together to achieve it.

There's nothing extreme about pointing out that making a bad error that leads to a goal once a game is below average for a first team keeper and is likely to cost us points in tighter games where we don't score 4. Statistically he was the worst keeper last year for saving shots that were saveable. Going on the evidence so far, it seems like that will continue.

It's not nonsense. There were loads of reasons we went down last year and Bazunu being rubbish is certainly one of them. I'm not sure I agree with someone who has the opinion that he was the main reason, but it wouldn't be entirely outlandish for someone to think that. He was certainly a big reason.

Looks like you could be onto something given that @Ed Rooneyseems to have scarpered.

Thing is he may turn into an excellent keeper with time. That time isn't now though which is why he shouldn't be our first choice.

Sam Johnstone at Palace. There's loads.