Could Artur Boruc Become Saints Greatest Ever Keeper ? Tuesday, 29th Oct 2013 09:53 One of the main reasons for Saints great defensive record this season has been the form of Artur Boruc, could the Polish stopper become a Saints legend. A year ago Artur Boruc was not a popular man amongst Saints supporters, after a less than impressive debut at West Ham, followed by a dodgy first half against Spurs at St Mary's exactly a year ago yesterday (28th Oct) Boruc clearly looking unfit and out of sorts responded to some stick from the crowd behind the goal in the Chapel End by tossing his water bottle at them as he departed for the half time break, I say toss as it was hardly a throw, but some of that crowd behind the goal as football fans are want to do on occasions blew the incident out of proportion, however with Boruc either suspended/injured depending on what report you believed, it looked unlikely that he would appear for the club again. In the following two months though, Saints were having a goalkeeping crisis, Paulo Gazzaniga was clearly one for the future, but wasn't experienced enough to deal with the situation he found himself in, behind a defence in disarray and he was briefly replaced by Kelvin Davis in December, however Davis was clearly not the answer in the long term or even the short term if Saints wanted to stay up. Therefore most Saints fans wish list in the transfer window in January included a decent central defender and a proven goalkeeper, it turned out that we got neither, but in the goalkeeping stakes we got a shock that we didn't expect. Saints fans arriving for the New Years Day game against Arsenal were surprised to learn that Artur Boruc was selected, this brought a mixed respsonse and in the early stages of the game as Boruc struggled to hold a couple of fairly simple crosses, that section of the crowd who are quick to get on the back of the players they don't like, Fox, Guly even Wanyama will testify to that, were just as quick to get on Boruc's. Ironic cheers rang out when he caught his first cross and subsequent ones, but they didn't last long. I saw something in Boruc that day that impressed me, I saw a confidence to come and command his box that we hadn't seen in a Saints keeper in many a year, even though he had dropped the first three balls, he wasn't afraid to come for the fourth and the fifth, he played himself through the dodgy spell and Saints got a well earned draw against the Gunners. His next game though would be vital, Aston Villa away in the proverbial six pointer, a 1-0 win saw Boruc in brilliant form, but it wasn't the smart saves that impressed me most, it was that ability to come and catch crosses and the way he exuded calmness under pressure, this was the start of a great run in the team and he more than most was responsible for Saints staying up, yes we could score goals, but stopping them was the problem, he still had a dodgy defence in front of him, but he turned it from extremely suspect into merely dodgy and that was a big contribution to us staying up with some to spare. This season he has continued his fine form and aided by the signing of Lovren we are at present the meanest defence in the Premier and indeed one of the tightest in the main European leagues. So far Boruc only has 29 League appearances for Saints to his name, to be a true great for this club he certainly needs to be over and above the 150 mark, however still only 33, a young age for a goalkeeper he does have time on his side to do it, in reality its only another 3 seasons after this one, indeed perhaps the main contender for the title Saints Greatest Keeper, Peter Shilton was almost exactly the same age as Boruc is now when he joined the club. Its a bold statement, but I don't think that I have seen a keeper who has performed so well for Saints since the days of Shilton, if Boruc can stay for a few years then I feel he could actually challenge one of England's greatest keeper's for his title at Saints. Shilton will be a hard act to top, 188 League games for Saints and 242 in all competitions and at the time England's first choice keeper, that's a hard act to beat. Since Shilton I feel that there have been only two goalkeepers who can challenge for the title, Tim Flowers played 192 league games and 251 in total and we saw him blossom from a raw youngster into an England keeper before his departure for Blackburn, a move that saw him lose a little respect from Saints fans at the time, meaning that when he returned it was a long time before he didn't get booed. The second is Antti Niemi, the flying Finn would be the choice of Saints fans of a certain age, strangely though being injury prone he only made 106 league appearances for the club, he was undoubtably a class act, although for me Boruc is better, Niemi was a great keeper and shot stopper, but he didn't have the command of his box and the bravery of Boruc, so in the all time list of greatest Saints keeper he would be behind both Shilton & Flowers. Some younger fans might go for Kelvin Davis, although it cannot be denied that Davis has put in great service to the club 259(1) league appearances so far plus numerous other competitions, most of these have been made outside of the top flight and perhaps the key point would be, at few times during his 7 years at the club has Davis truly been seen as the number 1 keeper in the long term, there has always been that question mark over him, therefore whilst I can do nothing other than applaud his dedicated service to the cause I struggle even to get him into the top 10 when it comes to performance. So who would be the top 10 greatest Saints keepers since the war, before we insert the name of Artur Boruc ? 1. Peter Shilton An illustrious list there which I have based on number of games played and contribution to the club, I have also looked to the past, I know little about Ian lack for instance, but the fact he won a Scotland cap whilst here as well as his displays mean that he should be in the top 10 . One absentee is Maik Taylor, he really should have gone on to be a Saints great, his 18 appearances in the tail end of 96/97 season were short and sweet, but make no bones about it, he like Boruc made a contribution that was the difference between Saints staying up or going down, sadly Dave Jones arrived and he never played again. So where should Artur Boruc be inserted into this list, its difficult at the moment as he has played so few games, but if he continues his form for the rest of this season, I would probably have him coming in around 7th, however if he stays at the club for say two more seasons and keeps up the form he has shown then it could be much higher, I think he will need to go a long long way to oust Peter Shilton from that top spot, but if Saints achieve what they are capable of in the next couple of seasons then 2nd is extremely possible. It is early days yet, but in the 29 league games Boruc has played so far I haven't seen a keeper I trust and that indeed the defence trusts and has an all round game, since Peter Shilton and that is some compliment. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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