£10 Million for a Scottish Keeper? Who Knew?
By: JT | August 7th, 2007
We’re short on Celtic news today, so let’s discuss the most fascinating story of the Scottish football transfer season thus far. Yes, the Old Firm have brought in their usual array of international faces, but the real news is that Heart of Midlothian’s Scottish international keeper and 2006 Football Writers’ Player of the Year Craig Gordon is set to move to the English Premiership for a fee as monstrous as £10m!
To put that into context, the British record fee for a keeper is £7.8 million and that was for World Cup winner and certified nut case Fabian Barthez. Aston Villa and Sunderland are prepared to pay £9m for Gordon’s services, and Manchester City’s new regime (and I use that term literally) may be willing to raise the price an additional £1m.
Every fan of Scottish football knows that Craig Gordon is a top keeper, and a potential world beater. He’s made the odd mistake here and there, mostly to Celtic’s benefit, but there is little doubt a move to the English top division is what he needs to fully realize his potential. I normally have reservations about keepers who go with short sleeve kits, a la Barthez, but I’d have none about slotting Gordon into practically any team in Europe’s First XI. He’s only 24 and the future is tremendously bright for the kid.
Good on Hearts for developing some Scottish talent and getting what looks to be more than a just reward for it. Good on Gordon for showing loyalty to his boyhood club until they could get the maximum fee for him.
This transfer is great for Hearts, and as far as I can tell, excellent for Scottish football as well.
Be warned rich boys, the market has now been set. If you come looking to take Artur Boruc from Celtic Park, you had better be ready to ante up. Big time.
Some highlights of the man at work
Category: Celtic
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Comments
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Great news. Gordon is the best in Scotland right now, alongside Boruc, and certainly the best Scotland’s NT has. This could only help his development, which could only be good for Scotland. Plus it gets him out of Hearts, where he hasn’t been happy in quite some time.
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Looks like Sunderland got him.
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That’s the move that I personally would have preferred him to make. Obviously, I’m a big fan of Keano (though not Man Utd) and it says something that a guy like him would shell out that kind of dough for a keeper. He must have liked what he saw during the 6 months he spent in Scotland.
You ever love a player on a team that you hate? Its weird. Kinda like Shockey on the Giants.
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Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m not as conversant in SPL happenings as the next guy on Celtic Offside. (Big shocker, I know.)
As a consequence, I had no idea how talented Gordon is. Thanks to the embedded highlights clip, now I do. Of course, this being a highlight clip, the guy didn’t put a foot wrong. What impressed me was his ability to cover some atrocious defensive lapses. That’ll do nicely for the Black Cats. (Though I don’t know whether or not he looks worth £9 Million).
(On another, another note: I pick Sund-Ireland to finish in the top half of the EPL; and not just because I like Niall Quinn and Roy Keane. More so because I think that Anthony Stokes and David Connolly will form a nice tandem.)
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I like it, SundIreland. Keano’s trying to gather up all the Irish talent so can fight the FAI when they’re called up for international duty. Its his favorite thing to do.
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