With Saints surprisingly signing Artur Boruc from Fiorentina on a one year deal, a look at his career do far and why he is called The Holy Goalie.

Artur Boruc's arrival at St Mary's looks seemingly to end Kelvin Davis's career at the club, the Polish stopper arrives on the same day that Davis found himself dropped for Paulo Gazzaniga and a good display from the youngster signed from Gillingham means that Nigel Adkins will have a difficult decision to make next weekend at Everton, does he keep Gazzaniga in the line up in what will be a tough game at Goodison or does he go for the experience of Boruc, either way it looks like Kelvin wont even be getting a seat on the bench for the rest of the season, injuries permitting, his onlty reprieve might come if Adkins thinks a bit more experience on loan somewhere might benefit Gazza.

Artur Boruc comes with shedloads of experience, starting his career with Legia Warsaw the team he also still supports with a passion, the 6ft 3 keeper left his hometown in 2005 to join Celtic and spent five seasons at Parkhead before joining Fiorentina in July 2010, being there number one choice for all but the first few weeks of his two year stay in Italy.

He earned the nickname the Holy Goalie in 2006 due to his habit of blessing himself before the start of every game, in most countries this would not be a problem, but doing it in front of Rangers fans in the Old Firm derby provoked controversy and he was also alledged to have made offensive gestures at the Rangers support, although he was cautioned by Strathclyde Police it was not taken any further. Perhaps any doubt that he had been trying to rile the Ger's fans though was confirmed in 2008 when after a game against Rangers he revealed a t shirt bearing the picture of the late Pope John Paul 2 with the slogan God Bless The Pope emblazoned across it.

He now arrives at Saints and at 32 years old could be at the peak of his goalkeeping career, certainly his experience could be right for Saints, although it will be interesting to see whether the manager keeps faith with Gazzaniga or feels that Boruc should go straight in the team, either way its not hard to come to the conclusion that Kelvin Davis is now well down in the pecking order and might well have played his last league game for the club.        

Photo: Action Images

hortonsaint added 15:07 - Sep 23 If he can get back to the form of his Celtic days we'll have a hell of a keeper on our hands. Kelvin was never going to be up to the standard of the PL, I've always backed him in the past against you Nick saying he (like Hooiveld) was adequate at a lower level, but think sentiment got the better of the club with him. Gazzaniga did fine yesterday but we'd have to see how he fares in a game such as next week before declaring him the answer. Therefore I think this is a good signing but it should've been done over the Summer.

0

BoondockSaint added 23:00 - Sep 23 Well done! Of course he'd want to play for a team named the Saints! He should be a good mentor for Gazza.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls