{"id":1305,"date":"2020-09-02T21:04:46","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T20:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2020-09-07T20:43:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T19:43:36","slug":"arsenals-goalkeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1305","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal’s Goalkeepers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Generations
Generations of Arsenal Glove Butlers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I set about writing this piece I imagined it was going to deal only with our current group of goalies and how blessed we are to have – transfer window and budgetary issues permitting – two top class goalkeepers, following an era when that has not always been the case.

But for me, it never takes long when thinking about Arsenal keepers before I\u2019m back in the days of a great hero of mine, Bob Wilson, and I make no apology whatsoever for using the opportunity to post a picture of the great man holding the tangible products of our 1971 League and Cup Double triumph.

Bob was the first Arsenal keeper I knew and as far as my not infallible memory goes, he had it all. The flying leap, the coming and gathering of a cross, the diving head first at the feet of an onrushing centre forward, and even trudging from the Highbury pitch in a blizzard-abandoned match, when he finally realised that all the other players had already gone off !

Bob, of course, served the club as goalkeeper coach after his playing days, his most famous and best charge being David Seaman – whom Arsene Wenger had the great fortune to inherit as his number one – reflecting Bob\u2019s influence as an agile, commanding and unerringly calm keeper. Seaman and Wenger together won two Premier Leagues and three FA Cups.

One skill which Bob had that has been lost in so many modern keepers, was the ability to catch the ball – a trait so refreshingly shared by Emiliano Martinez. This would seem to be the minimum requirement for a top level goalkeeper, but how many now prefer to punch or parry than catch and hold. Deciding when to come off his line was another area where he excelled and that brings me to the first point of, let\u2019s say, contrast with many of our recent custodians.

I read a comment, a long time ago now, in one of journalist and Arsenal fan Amy Lawrence\u2019s articles, in which she said she had once seen an international fixture between Northern Ireland and Russia. The Irish keeper was Gerry Peyton who was clearly a very good shot stopper, but whose weakness seemed to be decision making and coming off his line.

Peyton, of course, became the Arsenal goalkeeping coach in 2003 – when Bob Wilson retired from the position and left along with David Seaman – and worked at the club for 15 years. He left the club in 2018 along with several other members of the backroom staff, in changes which coincided with Arsene Wenger\u2019s retirement.

During his time at the club he worked with Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski, Wojcech Szczesny, Vito Mannone, David Ospina and Emi Martinez. The characteristics Amy Lawrence mentioned were a feature of all of those keepers with the very notable exception of Martinez.

Remember, for example, the first Barcelona game in the Champions League at The Emirates. From the West Upper stand we watched terrifying waves of rapid attacks bursting through our defence, but somehow Manuel Almunia pulled off a series of improbable saves that sent us in for half time oranges still level at 0-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopes were high at the restart that we could actually pull this thing off. Those high hopes were very swiftly dashed to pieces when our hero of the first half became the villain of the second, as he twice left defenders with nowhere to go by rushing bizarrely out of his goal.

Lukasz Fabianski, another really likeable man and great shot stopper, eventually suffered abuse and ridicule because of the rash excursions off his line and some quite shocking misunderstandings with his defence. He always gave the impression that, despite obvious agility and quick reflexes, he just didn\u2019t have the calmness or mental strength necessary to handle the pressures of playing at such a big club – something that has been borne out by his relative personal successes at Swindon and West Ham.

When Gerry Peyton left in 2018, the possibly surprisingly named, for an English ex-goalkeeper, Salvatore Bibbo took over, and he was joined in December 2019 by Brentford goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana Pavon – a man Mikel Arteta knows from their playing days at Barcelona. He set about improving the physical fitness of the keepers which, in turn, leads to better mental strength and concentration.

Someone who does appear to possess great mental strength is Emiliano Martinez and it\u2019s a quality he has developed since childhood. He comes from a genuinely poor family in Argentina and can remember times when \u201c[he and his] brother Alejandro could eat, but not [his] parents – there simply wasn\u2019t enough money to go round.\u201d He recalls seeing his father in tears because he couldn\u2019t pay the bills.

As a junior Emi played for Independiente in Buenos Aires, which is 400km from his home town of Mar del Plata. He would only see his family twice a month, when he travelled to them, because they couldn’t afford the petrol to drive to him. At 16 years of age there was another tough decision to make following his trial with The Arsenal. He was ‘scared’ coming to England for his trial and decided \u201cthere was no way I was going to leave my family.\u201d When he got the acceptance call a week after his trial, he said \u201cI saw my brother and parents crying, saying “please don’t go.\u201d I had to be brave at the time, because I said “yes” for them. Now I don’t regret anything. I have got a wife and a kid here and I have a future in London.\u201d And his family can now certainly pay the bills!

The early settling in period was hard. Apparently there was little assistance adjusting to his new environment and there was a new language to learn. As he didn\u2019t have a European passport he could not play professionally until he was 18, finally experiencing senior English football at Oxford United in 2012. There were further loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Wolves, Getafe and Reading, which he vowed would be his last. He is now Arsenal\u2019s longest-serving player, and after ten years in the background has, fittingly for a keeper, certainly grabbed his opportunity with both hands (every possible pun absolutely intended).

Martinez played as a centre forward as a child which probably explains why he appears so comfortable playing out in some pretty tight situations. However, he had become such a good goalkeeper by the age of 16, that he was playing for the Argentina U17s and that\u2019s where he was spotted by an Arsenal scout. It was ten years ago when Independiente were happy to agree on a \u00a31.1million fee to transfer their keeper to the Arsenal.

Martinez\u2019 teammate and rival for the first team spot is, of course, Bernd Leno.

Leno was born in Bietigheim-Bissingen in Germany in 1992 and, like Martinez, is 28 years old. From the age of 6 (yes, 6!) in 1998 to 11 in 2003, he played for SV Germania Bietigheim, and so the proximity to home of his earliest club would suggest a somewhat more comfortable childhood than that of Martinez.

In 2003 he joined VfB Stuttgart Youth until 2009 when he moved up to the VfB Stuttgart II Senior side at 17 years of age. 2011 saw him transfer to Bayer Leverkusen, where he spent 7 years and made 233 appearances for the Bundesliga team, until moving to the Arsenal in 2018.

Since 2008 he has represented Germany at U17, U18, U19 and U21 level, and since October 2015 has made 6 appearances for the senior Germany side.

Like Martinez, Leno is very comfortable playing out from the back, even though it didn\u2019t always necessarily appear so behind Unai Emery\u2019s haphazard (lack of) defensive structure. Before his unfortunate knee injury he had been in great form, made many brilliant saves and was consistently among our best performers.

Now, in the middle of the current transfer window and apparently strapped for cash, Arsenal will seemingly have to raise money to assist any spending. Any position boasting two elite performers will have to be considered a potential source of funds by selling one. It is so good to see two proper goalkeepers at the club, I hate to think of either of them being allowed to leave. But this is not a perfect world – just in case that had escaped anyone\u2019s notice! – and realistically both are too good to want to play second fiddle.

I have to say my personal choice would be to keep Martinez, if push came to shove. He seems a more imposing physical presence but I was surprised to find that there is only one inch between them in height – Leno is 1.90 metres, or 6\u2019 3\u201d in old money, while Martinez is 1.93 metres, or 6\u2019 4\u201d. However, Leno weighs in at 79kg or 12st 6lb, while Martinez is significantly heavier at 88kg or 13st 12lb – hence that physical impression.

I\u2019m sure many will disagree but I think Martinez is the best all round keeper I\u2019ve seen for a long time. Extremely confident to play Arteta\u2019s way, and he produced two more superb one-on-one stops in last weekend\u2019s Community Shield victory over Liverpool. He has served 10 years in the club\u2019s employ now and it seems to mean a huge amount to him.

I really hope he stays. For me, he\u2019s definitely a keeper (yes, ok \ud83d\ude44).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goonerholics Forever Ropey League Fantasy Football<\/strong>
We are happy to announce the Holics Ropey League will continue in the Fantasy League for the 2020\/21 season. All Gooners are most welcome to join the fun. Please post a comment requesting details and we will send you the code by the e-mail required in your comment\u2019s author information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I set about writing this piece I imagined it was going to deal only with our current group of goalies and how blessed we are to have – transfer window and budgetary issues permitting – two top class goalkeepers, following an era when that has not always been the case. But for me, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,3,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}