Clrnc wrote:
Gazza M wrote:
if runarsson was signed on canas recommendation, he needs to be binned off immediately, not made 'an important part of our methodology'
It was. He made a special personal recommendation to sign him because he rate him from their days in Denmark.
To be fair Runarsson was intended to be a third-choice keeper. Matt Macey used to be our third choice and he played 2 games in seven years (one league cup and one EL game). We probably just needed a body and weren't expecting him to have to make more than a sub appearance or so at worst. Injuries and the whole goalkeeping mess with Macey and Martinez leaving meant that Runarsson ended up starting 6 games in his first season though, including four in Europa League and one in Premier League.
I'm still not sure he's that bad as a budget choice; there's no evidence that Macey is a better keeper for instance, and I watched a bit of the reserves this season where a highly rated talent like Okonkwo looked absolutely fucking useless and made errors that were much worse than the ones Runarsson made in the first team. I think our mistake was mostly ending up with a third-choice keeper as our main backup for half a season. When you get that far down in the pecking order you're not going to get any Championship material unless you're a club like Chelsea or Man City. Runarsson had experience of playing regularly in both Denmark and France and so was not a bad pick for a million quid. The fans who turned on him on social media should have been angrier at the club instead for going into the season with no second choice keeper.
The alternative to Runarsson would have been to bet on a young talent like Okonkwo or Hein I guess, but watching those two in the reserves made me feel that they were still several levels below. I'll be shocked if either of them turns out a professional footballer in England.
