Jak Alnwick has his sights set on the Champions League and playing for England.
A week ago the Port Vale keeper was looking over his shoulder at relegation to League Two but a £250,000 transfer has proved career changing.
Alnwick came through the ranks at Newcastle and believes that his move to Sevco can mirror Fraser Forster’s decision to join Celtic!
When Forster first joined Celtic in 2010 he was brought into an exciting young side that was reinvesting the money raised from Aiden McGeady’s transfer.
Team-mates included Emilio Izaguirre, Joe Ledley, Anthony Stokes, Ki Sung Yeung, Gary Hooper and Beram Kayal.
After winning the Scottish Cup at the end of his first season Forster picked up the 2012 SPL title and before the year was out was front page news in Barcelona.
Alnwick faces a tough task ousting Wesley Foderingham from the Sevco side while the route to the Champions League and the England international side includes more obstacles than a couple of circuits round Aintree.
Undeterred the former Port Vale ace is big on ambition and has already bought into the survival myth about a club that has only won the Petrofac Cup in it’s miserable and debt ridden four a half year history.
“He was a striker at one point and a rugby player and they didn’t know what to do with him because he was so big,” Alwick told the Daily Record about his hero Fraser Forster.
“But he worked hard every day and you would see him in the gym every day or outside practising his kicking. He came up here, did brilliantly for Celtic in the Champions League and got his move to Southampton and got involved in the England set-up. Now I think he will be England’s No.1.
“You look at all the goalkeepers who have been up here – Artur Boruc, Allan McGregor, Craig Gordon, David Marshall and Fraser.
“It proves the clubs up here – especially Rangers, who are a massive, massive club – produce keepers. You’re not going to get forgotten about.”
“I spoke to my older brother Ben who is a goalie at Bolton, and he said I shouldn’t need to think about coming to Rangers.
“But you don’t need anybody to tell you about Rangers. The club’s history speaks for itself. As soon as I knew they were interested I said: ‘That’s the club I want to go to’.”
Perhaps Jak will soon be asking brother Ben about ‘going concern’ liquidation and TUPE.
