After a string of impressive performances for Birmingham City, including Saturday’s man of the match showing against Champions Chelsea, I am wondering to think if we were right to let Ben Foster leave in the summer. United sold the talented English keeper for an initial fee of £4million which could rise to a sum of £6million. Is that a good enough price for a goalkeeper we knew had a big future ahead of him?
There has been much speculation regarding Edwin Van Der Sar’s successor. Anders Lindegaard, a 26 year old Danish keeper is on the verge of signing a £3.5million deal at the club. There have been doubts over his ability, with the great Peter Schmeichel insisting he is not ready for the Premier League:
“You can look at talent, you can look at young, good players. You don’t want that. You want someone who can go in straight away and give performances in 80 per cent of the games the No 1 keeper will play for Manchester United.”
After hearing the rumours around Lindegaard, I’m a little sceptical myself. I think it would have been better to keep Foster at United for a few more years. The 27 year old, did make some key mistakes in a Manchester United shirt. However, I have to say he has looked like a new man in the Midlands. We all know of his obvious talent and recently he has shown just why he was and still is rated as one of the top English goalkeepers. If he had been given a few more years at Man United, surely his price would have only increased and he could only have improved as we are all seeing him do now in Alex McLeish’s side.
That being said, Foster has moved on and hopefully so will we. Let’s hope Anders Lindegaard proves to be an instant hit and IS able fill the ‘huge gloves’ of Edwin Van Der Sar.
He is a good keeper, but a Utd keeper? Dunno…
inwas his staunchest defender as a utd player but even now I think it best for Ben to be plying his trade elsewhere… and the best of luck to the guy!
There is an enormous amount of pressure placed on goalkeepers at old trafford ,in saying that he was given his chance when VDS became injured and was found wanting.If this is edwins last season our parasite owners had better blow the dust from their chequebook. Footballs history suggests you win jack shit with a dodgy keeper.
Good article and one to think about.
I was not sorry to see him leave Old Trafford as you highlight he made some “key” errors when given his opportunity.
He wanted to be the No1 and that was not going to happen while EVDS is doing the sterling job he has done and is doing.
He is performing also well for England, it looks good for England on the G/K front him and Hart fighting for the No1 spot.I would go for Hart all day long.
He made as we know several great saves against Chelsay and one world class save,credit to him.
However he also fully bottled one save he should have taken everything he shirked it big time.
No, he still tends to make crap decisions. Even in the Chelsea game. Also, he comments while on duty for England after his mistakes against City and Sunderland basically showed he didn’t understand the consequences of his mistakes. He made a clanger in pre-season against a Malaysian X1 and then decided to practise some fancy footwork against Tevez instead of hoofing it out.
Ben Foster is capable of producing some amazing saves, but is prone to eccentric moments than don’t give your team mates confidence.
I’m happy for Ben to do well, but he’s not what United need.
the only thing he needed was confidence and experience.. I think we gave him away a bit too easily.. maybe we should have loaned him out ?
Fosters main problem bar his inability to cope with the pressure of playing for such a huge club, was his distribution. His kicking was and still is horrendous, especially under pressure from an attacker. The Great Dane was the undisputed king of distribution, the guy used to get 10 assists every year, he had a throw to rival Paul Scholes’ long range passing. VDS has proven to be very good in this sense also, and has even improved on it since coming to United despite his age, his kicking is so calm and controlled, even under pressure. Having said that, Ben was always going to be a v. good keeper for a mid-table team, and I really felt we should have got more money for him. When you see buffon @32 valued at 30M, 6M really doesn’t by a decent standard player in todays world
I agreed with jezz09.BF not suitable for man u. every game we play like final…with huge pressure. BF is a good GK but not for big club…which is compete for every CUP. Man U need GK like D Gea…or may b shay given…he really realy good keeper…not doubt…Lingdegard as back up keeper.
@KAO How can you say David dea Gea? He is barely 20 years old…!!