I’m starting to get a little bit of deja vu with this latest news.
Because there are an awful lot of similarities to when we signed Edwin Van Der Sar. Same club, recently promoted, and you could make the argument we already had a number one in place at the time, just swap Maik Taylor for Marek Rodak. But that doesn’t meant things will work out the same way they did last time.
According to a report in Gazzetta Della Sport, Fulham are interested in Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin. With Juventus trying to offload some of their wages this summer, and with Wojciech Szczesny seemingly established as their number one, it makes sense for them to try and get rid of the 27-year-old, with a fee of £11m reported which should also help ease some of the Italian side’s money problems.
Personally, I’m not a fan of this move.
Should we be looking to sign a new goalkeeper this summer?
Yes
No
Scott Parker talked after promotion about not making the same mistakes as the last time we got promoted, well this is exactly what we are doing by essentially stockpiling goalkeepers. When we came up last time, we had Marcus Bettinelli who had earned the right with his displays in the latter half of the season to start in the Premier League, only for us to then go and bring in two more goalkeepers to essentially undermine him.
It’s the same here with Marek Rodak. He earned the right to be our number one this season, and now that looks in jeopardy. If the club wanted to bring in an experienced backup, not too dissimilar to Manchester City signing Scott Carson, then fine. But to bring someone in to compete and disrupt the momentum that Rodak set for himself last season is just plain wrong and risks making the same mistakes again.
I was too young to pay attention when Van Der Sar came in to take Taylor’s spot in 2001, so I can’t comment on that, but I’m totally uneasy about this one for the reasons laid out. What I would say, in addition to all that, is that if the deal does go through, it more or less seals Marcus Bettinelli’s fate at the club.