With an experienced back up keeper to Fraser Forster set to arrive soon, Saints are sending Paulo Gazzaniga out on loan.

With the rumour being that Alex McCarthy is about to arrive from Crystal Palace to provide back up to Fraser Forster, it is an obvious move to send out Paulo Gazzaniga on loan and Spanish club Rayo Vallencano are reported to be his destination according to a Spanish newspaper who tweeted the news.

Rayo Vallencano are based in Madrid and play in the second tier of Spanish football, I am surprised that we should choose here to send Gazza as I would have thought it better to give him a higher standard of football than Rayo Vallencano can offer, I would have expected him to go to a Championship club.

But perhaps Saints feel that in Spain the style and less physical game will be better suited to Gazza's needs, after a torrid time a few years ago, he needs not only to gain experience but regain his confidence.

The young keeper has been at Saints for four seasons and has played only 20 games in the Premier League plus one where he came on as sub, but listening to Saints supporters you would have thought that he would have cost us dozens of games.

The truth is that almost half of his league appearances came in a two month spell in his opening season with Saints, he came in after Kelvin Davis had conceded 14 goals in the opening 4 fixtures and did a good job in helping Saints win several crucial games in doing so.

But some Saints fans did not appreciate he was a youngster with little experience thrown in at the deep end to do a job that a more experienced keeper like Kelvin could not handle and they crucified him for every little mistake.

Of course he was going to make errors, but it was not his fault that Saints hd no other viable option till they got Artur Boruc fit.

So in the following three seasons Gazza has started 11 Premier League games and come on as sub at Chelsea.

In the 11 games he has started he has done well, 7 of those were in 2013/14, so that leaves only 4 appearances in the past two seasons.

If you speak to Saints supporters you would think that in those limited games he had been a disaster, far from it, a 2-0 defeat at Leicester wasn't his greatest game, but he was pretty solid, but some blamed him for a poor kick for the opening goal, again not the greatest kick, but it did reach the touchline near the half way line and there were a couple of Saints defenders more culpable than the keeper.

He then played in the 6-1 home in over Villa and had a decent game making several good saves, OK Villa were poor but ou can only do what you are asked too.

Last season he played twice, he was arguably man of the match in a 1-0 defeat at Palace, making several good saves to keep the score down and then he again was faultless in qa 2-0 home defeat to Spurs, doing all that could have been asked.

So why do some Saints fans seem to hate him so much ?

I am really not sure, after all he has done nothing to enrage them other than make a few mistakes as a raw and rookie keeper.

He has not hid when asked to come in at difficult times when clearly he should not have been put in that position.

He should not be hated or screamed at by Saints fans frothing at the mouth as I witnessed at Leicester 18 months ago.

Saints have done the right thing over the past couple of seasons, they have kept him out of the limelight, they have restored his confidence in the academy side and this has meant that when he has come in over the four games in the past two years, he has looked the part, he has shown, as he did in crucial games against Aston Villa QPR and Newcastle in that first season, that h has the ability, he now needs the confidence and experience.

The next step is to put him out on loan for this season, let him get confidence from playing in competitive football and show Saints that when he returns he is ready to step up to the plate when required.

His career at the club reminds me of Tim Flowers first three years or so back in the 1980's, a promising young keeper who early on struggled and had the fans on his back, Flowers persevered and won the fans over and had a glittering career, bu it could have been different if he had cracked.

Now Gazza is at the same crossroads as Flowers, he needs to make the step up after a long hard time and road, there is a section of our support who are unforgiving, they seem to have to have a scapegoat, but they can be won over as ironically Kelvin Davis showed after his first two seasons and indeed Artur Boruc also did.

So good luck to Paulo Gazzaniga whether its Spain or whatever destination for your loan spell, you have been a model professional at Saints, I hope that you can come back and prove your doubters wrong, as a Saints supporter I want all of our players to do well, I do not want them to fail, sadly there are those that do.

Photo: Action Images

IanRC added 10:46 - Jul 29 Agreed, hope to see him back soon with confidence restored.
7

Toussaint added 10:57 - Jul 29 I always remember him being the Gillingham player of the season before he came to us.the new contract proved Saints havent given up on him just yet
7

IWOZTHERE added 11:38 - Jul 29 Yes he made early mistakes but I agree when he came in last season he was outstanding.Hopefully a loan move would give him regular football and confidence.
6

law101 added 11:52 - Jul 29 I think he has the potential to be brilliant If he improves his concentration. He is a great shot stopper and is good with the ball at his feet. Needs to command his area better and cut out the silly mistakes. Disappointed he is not going to the championship to improve these skills, I think he would be a great asset to a number of teams.
3

saintmark1976 added 11:55 - Jul 29 Another player who's confidence has been destroyed by the weekend get together of some members of the village idiots club who supposedly call themselves Saints fans. I was at Leicester when we lost 2-0 and frankly the whole team were shockingly bad but the idiots still had to find one person to blame.
5

highfield49 added 12:10 - Jul 29 If this loan move does go through I think it is the best possible outcome. Hopefully he will get regular football without a sad section of supporters undermining his confidence. The problem with a loan over here is that the best lower league teams already have keepers and there would be zero point in him struggling behind a relegation fodder defence. Good luck Gazza, hope to see you back at St Mary's when the time is right.

4

steve61 added 13:04 - Jul 29 Great move for him. I assume we've been given some assurances that he'll get game time with Rayo, which is what he needs. Lets hope he wants to come back to us after the unfair s**t he's been given by the idiots .... got the feeling he's going to be an excellent keeper in the not too distant future.
5

halftimeorange added 16:30 - Jul 29 This move if it comes about, should have happened a couple of seasons ago and then he would not have endured any abuse from his parent club's so-called fans who, I recall, handed out stick to Bart, Kelvin and Artur.
6

Big_T added 20:18 - Jul 29 I think most on here all think there is a great player just waiting to come out, I hope the loan move is what is needed for him. He's not far away from what we need but game time is key. Wish him well.
2

the_saint added 10:32 - Jul 30 So we lost Davis skep and gazza and possibly have one coming in. So Fraser,Lewis plus one, we still seem a bit light in this area
0

Blogs 32 bloggers

Stevenage Polls