Forum | General Discussion

Goalkeepers are a strange breed, in a way they are much akin to drummers, desperate and disparate souls, after all, who would willingly play an instrument that takes a pernicious Addison Lee 'men in black' delivery vehicle a lot of time, and a whole lot of money to deliver them to their venue?

Goalkeepers by the very nature of their job have to be (a) resilient, and (b) impervious to criticism from the masses. When David Sullivan and David Gold signed ex-Manchester City keeper Joe Hart they thought they had pulled off one of the deals of the century, after all, wasn't Joe Hart once deemed the best goalkeeper in the World?

The truth is, he once was, with the operative word being in the past tense, a brilliant goal keeper who unfortunately believed their own myth, his advisers who sanctioned his 'unbeatable' head & shoulders ads have a lot to answer for!

Once upon a time Manchester United's David De Gea was viewed as the best keeper in the Barclays Premier League, and possibly in the World, but his fall from grace has been spectacular to the point that his current OPTA rating is not far off that of Hammer's 'goal keeping leg end' Robero Jiminez Gago, they are both Spanish, share a love for a predication of 'fisherman's tattoos', and are both currently useless!

Joe Hart went from hero to zero in a relatively short space of time for a keeper, David De Dea is a recent addition to the appalling keeper stakes, but he will really have to pull up trees if he wants to match the 'car crash' that was Roberto, although De Gea is doing pretty well in his stead! - Ed

There are many strange managerial decisions taken by football managers that leave fans dumbfounded by their actions, only for the fans to be proved mistaken in questioning the wisdom of a professional who is highly paid to make those choices, however, West Ham United's manager Manuel Pellegrini proves that is not always the case.

The current manager's insistence on playing one up front almost led to his dismissal following an appalling run of results that were triggered by the long term injury to 'Europe's best goalkeeper' of last season, Lukasz Fabianski, before he reluctantly bowed to fans' and owners pressure to play Michail Antonio and Sebastian Haller as a front pairing.

Insisting on the formation that he has found great success with, albeit with much more expensively assembled squads, was not Pellegrini's cardinal sin, after all he did eventually rectify the situation, even if he left it until his situation was almost untenable.

Pelligrini's most questionable decision though seems to be his compulsion to select Carlos Sanchez for the match day squad, even stranger is his propensity for bringing the 'erratic' Sanchez on to 'see out the game', with a result of achieving mass insecurity for viewing fans and confusion for the players he has just joined on the pitch. When Sanchez comes on, opposition players and fans alike know that (a) Hammers are trying to shut up shop, and (b) that with Sanchez on the pitch there is a very strong possibility that their team will score as a result of Sanchez 'pretending to be a footballer' with his perpetually misplaced passes!

Sanchez is an experienced international player, from Colombia, which is in South America, as is Chile where Manuel Pellegrini comes from. Chile and Colombia are connected by Peru, but here at the Org we think there must be a closer connection between Manuel Pellegrini and Carlos Sanchez other than they both speak Spanish.

Of course in order to avoid litigation, we can only suggest, that there are those in Colombia who specialise in extortion and kidnapping, apart from their wholesale cocaine production for export. We wonder if 'arrangements' have been made that include the 'house detention' of several of Pellegrini's family in order for Sanchez to remain at the London Stadium, why else would he have even sanctioned the signing of Sanchez?

Anyway, it appears that the 'house guests' have now been released, on account of the fact that the club are making Carlos Sanchez and Roberto Jiminez Gago available for transfer during the January transfer window. Now, before you ask who or why anyone would want either player, just remember two can play at the 'family' game, rumour has it that even as you read this article, action has been taken by 3rd parties to ensure the smooth exit of both players.

The only tell tale reference of the'events' will probably just be a small invoice tucked away in the club's financial accounts, but they will bury it next to a shed load of Willy McKay stuff, even Sherlock wouldn't find it! - Ed