Hold the back page!

Hold the back page! Another Addicks signing. Ben Alnwick who had his contract mutually terminated by Barnsley on Monday has joined on a one-year’s contract.

Alnwick is one of a host of homegrown young goalkeepers who has simply faded from view. The Northumberland born ‘keeper has represented England at all levels up to Under 21 and at just 20 earnt a big money move to Tottenham, who paid an initial fee of £900,000 to Sunderland.

He has since been loaned to all and sundry and ended up at Barnsley a year ago signing then a 2-year deal. Alnwick, if you remember, played very well against us in one the ‘games for fiver’ last season. He was on the bench for the away game if you are asking!

They always say: “who’d be a goalkeeper”? and these days it’s an incredibly difficult task trying to break into 1st teams. Despite the fact football is now a squad game rarely do ‘keepers get swapped on a regular basis which calls for a lot of bench-warming and patience with most clubs carrying three, if not four first team goalkeepers amonsgt their ranks.

Blocked by older pros who play a lot older than most and now later to the party than other positions we’ve seen an influx of foreign goalies, much better than the stereotype we were used to. Being a young goalkeeper under the microscope must be very difficult.

I don’t know the Ben Alnwick story, but I suspect it is similar to the above. For no other reason, with no disrepect to Nick Pope, Alnwick’s signing will keep Ben Hamer on his toes. He was noticably better last year when he came back to the side after being dropped.

Yesterday the club moved to reward Joe Piggott with a new 3-year contract, justifiably so based on his season last year with the Development Team and then from what he has shown pre-season and in the some early games this season on the main screen.

I’d be as brave to say that Piggott has certainly saved the club money in the loan or transfer market. We now hope that Jimenez and Powell are in discussions on the very long list of player contracts that expire in less than a year.