After the being dropped for Paulo Gazzaniga and the arrival of Artur Boruc its hard to see a future at Southampton Football Club for Kelvin Davis.
They say a week is a short time in politics and certainly Kelvin Davis will feel thats the case in football, as we travelled to Arsenal he was the undisputed first choice goalkeeper at St Mary's, fast forward seven days and he is now third in the peckig order.
There is no doubt that in leaking 14 goals in their opening four games that Kelvin hadnt covered himself in glory, indeed there were more than just a couple that he really should have done better with, being caught out on his near post too many times to be just co incidence, but there wern't many Saints supporters that would have predicted that he would have been dropped for the inexperienced Gazzaniga against Aston Villa on Saturday, many thought that perhaps this might be a game for him to get his confidence back in, in reality Nigel Adkins thought the opposite, that it was a chance to blood his back up keeper.
With Gazzaniga looking the part and the arrival of the very experienced Artur Boruc, Nigel Adkins has some thinking to do for Saturday, but sadly Kelvin doesnt look likely to be in that thinking at this stage, unless Boruc does need a few weeks to get match fit, ironically on the day that he turns 36 when he thought he might be on Merseyside, he could well be at home reflecting on his future.
Kelvin has been a good servant to Saints, his first two seasons with the club were fraught and it would be airbrushing history to be completely kind to him, he arrived shellshocked from Sunderland where he hadnt impressed in his one season on Wearside as they went down from the Premier, initially although not earning rave reviews at St Mary's he was adequate and Saints headed towards the play offs, but by March Kelvin was stuttering and so were the team, an injury to him saw Bart Bialkowski brought into the side and to be blunt a series of great displays by the Pole helped drag Saints back into a play off spot.
The following season Kelvin found himslef on the bench for the opening games, however many felt George Burley was throwing Bialkowski to the Wolves and with a makeshift defence in front of him the young keeper's confidence was destroyed and Kelvin was back in the side, things were no better and a drubbing at Sheffield Wednesday saw supporters turn on the keeper and various hand gestures exchanged by both sides. in certain aspects this season mirrored the first, only this time it was the arrival of Richard Wright on loan that deposed him and again some great performances from Wright helped keep Saints up.
The following year saw Kelvin finally accepted by Saints fans, as we went down to league 1 with a team of youngsters in front of him, this is ideal territory for keepers as they have a lot to do and can mkae a lot of saves, Kelvin proved that he was a great shot stopper.
He could have gone to West Ham on loan in the summer of 2009 but hung on and signed another deal for Saints as they rebuilt their team after the arrival of Markus Liebherr, in the three years since his displays have been a lot better than his first two seasons although he has not been pushed for his place up until now.
Its hard to see a future for kelvin at the Club, the focus is very much on younger players, Boruc is only on a one year deal, but Gazzaniga is the hope and behind those two is the rated Cody Cropper, turning 36 this Saturday its hard to see a way back for Kelvin this season or going forward.
At this age he needs to be playing games, so the most likely outcome is that he will be going out on loan, perhaps not straight away, it would be folly to do that until both Gazzaniga and Boruc have bedded in, but after that its hard to see him wanting to kick his heels every Saturday at home in the garden and with Cropper being developed in the U21 side he wont even get a game at that level.
Good luck to Kelvin and a thank you to him, he has been a loyal servant to this club, stranger things have happened, but its hard to see him playing another game for Saints in the League.