Brendan Rodgers has reassured Joe Hart that he won’t be expecting Ederson Mark II to be in goals for Celtic in the season ahead.
The role of the goalkeeper has evolved massively during Hart’s time in the game with Rodgers at the centre of change when he arrived at Celtic in the summer of 2016.
Craig Gordon is from the same generation as Hart but found himself dropped for Dorus de Vries straight after helping Celtic into the group stage of the Champions League after a nerve jangling tie away to Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
De Vries might have been comfortable with the ball at his feet but he was unconvincing as a ‘keeper with Gordon restored to favour and taking on board the need to play the ball out to a defender rather than launch it into the other half.
Hart instantly brought reassurance to the Celtic defence after a disastrous season alternating between Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas but there is always an element of uncertainty with a change in management. Especially when you are 36 and in the final year of your contract.
?? “I don’t need him to be Ederson at Man City.”
I asked Brendan Rodgers if Celtic are exploring options for a new goalkeeper, or if Hart is the #1 for the foreseeable.
By the sounds of this, it’ll be Hart’s jersey this season at least. pic.twitter.com/s901LPODrp
— Enda Coll (@enda_coll) July 13, 2023
It’s for me to assess everything at the moment but I’ve always liked Joe. He’s 36 but he trains so hard every day and he’s a great influence around this changing room. That will be really important and you can never underestimate that. As a player he is undervalued in terms of what he can do with his feet.
I don’t need him to be Ederson at Man City – I just need him to keep the ball out of the net. Then when the ball comes back to him I just need him to play simple. From what I have seen so far, and from Celtic games in the past, I think he can do that. That question maybe applies for later on but as I see Joe now, he’s been fantastic for Celtic and a great influence. I will assess it over time.
On last season’s limited appearances neither Bain nor Ben Siegrist look like seriously challenging Hart for his place in the Starting XI.
Always room for improvement though and nobody should ever rest on their laurels – if there’s a better option available, we should look at it.
He’s been a good keeper for us and obviously a positive influence at the start of Ange’s era. Had we had Hart in goal in Seville 20 years ago, we’d probably have won. But if we’d had Forster, Boruc or Gordon in goal that night, we would undoubtedly have won. I tortured myself by watching it again for the first time in many years the other week and was struck by just how poor that clown Rab Douglas was. He stuck out like a sore thumb in that team. Awful.
That was Martin’s Achilles heel… A half decent keeper and we might have won it…
We have to be looking forward re: keeper, Hart will probably leave next season so we should be actively looking at options NOW and if there’s a better keeper get them in the door now
Captain, I really thought I was the only one. Celtic have had some of the worst goalkeepers on the planet and at the same time they have been some of the nicest people.
Bonner, Douglas and Hart to name a few examples and I totally agree, to play Big Rab in the same team as Larsson and Sutton was very starnge.
Apart from “The Holy Goalie ” and the “Wall” we have’t had a decent one since Simpson.
Rangers and now Sevco had/have always had an eye for one and I used to say find out which keeper they are going for and top their bid.
The guy they brought in from the reserves to replace the aging Macgregor was also great and even they have bought a replacement in Butland.
Unfair to single out the goalie. We didn’t reach the Final because our goalie was poor. We lost that game because Baldi got sent of and we went to ten men. And they scored a third!
Assimilating new players prior to season start is important.
It looks like the guy we bought to replace Jota won’t be fit until September at the earliest. We might, I stress might, have got away with playing Mikey Johnson there but he’s now injured.
Carter Vickers is recovering but may not be back for the seasons start. Alistair Johnson won’t be back until September.
Identifying players is not done on a fag packet.
Either Rodgers has assessed the list and torn it up or he’s asked the team to go back and start again.
We’re now at the stage where we need to start bringing in cover for the injured players and quality to push the team forward otherwise talk of progressing in Europe is simply that.
We keep getting told we’re going to spend big.
This is now beginning to get a whiff of neglect about it.
The last part of your paragraph… “This is now beginning to have a whiff of neglect about it” –
Unfortunately There is a whiff of Peter ‘neglect’ Lawwell being back in the building these days sadly…
John Fallon was a great goalkeeper, though his problem was a lack of concentration when being called into action after doing nothing for so long, then there was Ally Hunter, the last decent Scottish goalkeeper signed from another Scottish club. Then what about Pat Bonnar, he didn’t win about 100 caps for the Republic of Ireland for nothing.
Craig Gordon was also much more than decent.