Former Everton and Arsenal striker, Kevin Campbell, has come to form an ‘interesting’ (read ridiculous) opinion on Aston Villa’s decision to make Roma and former Sheffield United loanee goalkeeper, Robin Olsen, our fourth capture of the January transfer window. He somehow feels that following on from the dramatic late comeback against Manchester United last weekend, our goalkeeping department is something that needed improvement.
Describing the capture of the 32-year-old Swedish international as ‘a great move’, Campbell seemed to simply latch to Olsen’s own words about hoping he and Emi Martinez would push each other to be better keepers.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, or Campbell claiming it, until you get to the part where he shows a lack of knowledge about anything at the club, focuses on Emi’s ‘howler’ in the last game and mentions ‘a wake up call’ – whilst also seeming to be completely unaware of the existence of Jed The Stare Steer.
“He’s going to be a good backup for Martinez. You want your goalkeepers to be pushing each other and Olsen will do that. Martinez had a howler against Man United. It was perhaps down to a lack of concentration and a lack of concentration can be caused by a lack of competition. Maybe that’s why they’ve got a good number two in. You also have to think about a scenario when Martinez gets injured. Villa would’ve been thinking, ‘Wow, what do we do?’ They needed somebody who could come in and cover for that team. Olsen is a great signing. He gave Pickford a big wake-up call when he joined Everton last season.”
Martinez made a mistake, it happens on rare occasions in any season even for him, he didn’t have a howler. The howler is in thinking it could’ve been a ‘lack of concentration caused by a lack of competition’ – Campbell’s lack of concentration is presumably in watching highlights and not the game or any games of ours this season. It’s not Emi who needs the ‘wake up call’.
Given the start to the season we’ve had and all the disruptions, Emi still has five clean sheets in the league this year. Not the standards he set last season, but it’s not on Emi alone.
What would we do if he was injured, we’d do what we’ve done before when he was unavailable, Jed Steer would play.
You know Jed, Kevin? 29-years-old, been with us since 2013? Mason Holgate is still having nightmares.
Aston Villa 'keeper Jed Steer psyched out Mason Holgate last night on his walk to take his penalty with this incredible stare-off! 👀 pic.twitter.com/3OQPqGc94O
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) May 15, 2019
And given Olsen only played eleven games for Everton, keeping three clean sheets – whilst conceding 14 in the process, was that really a wake up call for Jordan Pickford as well?
Don’t get me wrong, his experience is a positive boost to Emi and Jed, and the added competition will help, particularly as Covid rumbles on, so I have no issue with him coming in. The move is to simply ensure we have three senior stoppers – and again, I now expect Akos Onodi and Viljami Sinisalo to head off on loan again to boost their experience. But, for me he’s come in as a third as things stand, and any attempt to say this is a reaction to Emi’s performances this year, or the Manchester United game directly – is absolute batpoop.
