Goalkeepers value

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Times are changing, grab your gloves and jump on board

You wait 17 years for a bus and then two come along at the same time. Only, these busses are human, stand around 6 feet tall and like to stop a ball from getting to it’s final destination.

It’s been a great summer for lovers of the Goalkeeping position. We got to enjoy a fantastic World Cup, before being captivated within a transfer window that had us all refreshing our Sky Sports app every few minutes. I would love to do it all over again, but it’s just as exciting to now discuss the visible Goalkeeping movement, happening within football.

It was 17 long years ago, which saw Gianluigi Buffon move from Parma to Juventus for a world record fee for a Goalkeeper, of £32,5000,000. A long time has passed since then, many Goalkeepers having swapped one 18 yard box for another, but that record fee always remained. Well, you could argue that comes down to the reported exchange rate from pounds to euros, when the Ederson to Man City transfer was finalised in 2017. But, what we can all agree on, is the swift increase of a Goalkeepers value, both to a manager on the pitch and to the suits sanctioning the deals in the boardroom.

With Liverpool smashing the Goalkeeper transfer record for Roma’s Alisson Becker, in a deal worth a reported £65,000,000, he was the man that all eyes would be watching come the Premier League kick off. What also might have been difficult for the Brazilian shot stopper, was the expectation levels of being the newly crowned worlds most expensive Goalkeeper. Can he be the shot stopper to push the Kop faithful on to their first Premier League title? Can he challenge De Gea as the leagues top Goalkeeper? Those were the questions being asked all across the internet.

But, it didn’t last for long, as within weeks of that, Chelsea pulled off one of the biggest surprises of any transfer window in recent years. With Belgium’s Golden Glove winning Goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, finally exiting Stamford Bridge for Real Madrid, Chelsea turned their attention to Athletic Bilbao’s Kepa Arrizabalaga. The deal to bring the 23 year old Spanish international was worth an extraordinary fee of £71,000,000, once again breaking the world record fee for a Goalkeeper and also, a transfer record fee of Chelsea’s own.

It was a deal very much out of the Chelsea ‘blue’, with Stoke City’s Jack Butland tipped to replace the departing Courtois. But, instead new Chelsea boss ,Maurizio Sarri, opted for the young Spanish Goalkeeper, who had been quietly impressing within La Liga since his debut in 2016.

What also surprised many observers, is the length and value of contract that a relatively unknown Kepa was able to secure, a 7 year contract worth a reported £195,000 per week. In terms of contracts for Goalkeepers in recent years, that’s pretty much new found territory. But, times are changing and it’s long overdue in my opinion.

The combined total of transfers of Goalkeepers into a Premier League club, this window alone, is a staggering £215,000,000, with Kepa, Alisson and Leno accounting for £157,000,000 of that. That’s a figure that smashes previous years out the park. There has also been close to €100,000,000 spent on Goalkeepers in other top leagues such as Spain and Italy.

But, why has it taken so long for club’s to recognise the true value of a good Goalkeeper? Is it down to the demands of the current transfer market? Im not so sure, as it was only 1 year ago that Pep Guardiola signed Ederson for a reported fee of £32,000,000 and you have to go back three years previous to that, when the infamous broken fax machine derailed David De Gea’s potential move to Real Madrid, in a deal worth a reported £30,000,000. In recent years, the fee’s for Goalkeeper’s were still not justified, when analysing their importance to the team. But, in comparison, players of a good quality in every other position were demanding extraordinary fees of +£50,000,000.

So, why is it that the footballing world now seem to hold their club’s Goalkeepers in such high regards? Arguments could be made that it’s down to the ability and form of arguably the top two Goalkeepers in recent years, David De Gea and Manuel Neuer. But for me, the answer holds more merit than the performance level’s of those two Goliath’s alone.

The game of football has evolved and for me, Goalkeepers have had the toughest job to evolve with the game. Now, a Goalkeeper is seen to be a part of the team, when in previous years they would be apart from the team. Let’s be honest, in earlier years a Goalkeeper was instructed to stay in their box and save anything within the 6 yard box. Once a Goalkeeper had the ball, they were asked to release it to the player who knew how to play. Basically, know your role and that was it.

Now, a Goalkeeper has to have a catalogue of physical, technical and tactical attributes. Not only do the top Goalkeepers now have the ability and athleticism to play 60+ games a season, at incredible consistency and intensity, they now also play a pivotal role in a team’s tactical approach to the game, in and out of possession.

When you look at some of the best Goalkeepers in the world, they all have one attribute in common, their ability to distribute the ball over a variety of distances, with pinpoint accuracy. They also have the tactical knowledge, when their teams in possession, to create appropriate angles of support to receive the ball, which is conditioned by the position of the ball and all players on the pitch. In the modern era in which, playing out from the back seems to be the favoured option, it’s easy to understand why a manager would place such importance on a Goalkeepers ability on the ball.

At the same time, let’s not be naive, a Goalkeeper’s ability to keep the ball out of the net is just as paramount. Goalkeeper’s have also had to adjust their approach to the game and sacrifice the technical aspect of handling a ball at times. This is due to the significant speed and relentless movement patterns to which modern footballs now travel through the air. Put simply, the job to keep the ball out of the net is as hard as it’s ever been. The art of decision making is imperative for a Goalkeeper in today’s game, as is the psychological ability to deal with those decisions, whatever the outcome.

The required skill set of a Goalkeeper is incredibly impressive. We are in a golden era of Goalkeeping, we are witnessing saves deemed to be of world class stature on a weekly basis. Not only is it fair that Goalkeepers are now a valued member of a team, supported by their transfer value, it’s thoroughly deserved.

In years to come, there will be more big money moves for Goalkeepers, but unless they posses all of the top attributes required in the modern game, they won’t command a fee such as what we are experiencing now. There is a famous phrase ‘A good Goalie is worth 12 points a season’. Let it be known, they’re now worth a lot more than that.

Article written by, David Scott

GkNexus Founder

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