Marshall

[6TimesaRed]

Liverpool are being linked with a shock move for Cardiff City goalkeeper David Marshall.

Reds’ boss Brendan Rodgers is looking for a shot-stopper to put pressure on current number one Simon Mignolet, who has come under fire for his performances this season.

With a budget of apparently £5m set aside for the right man, reports from London suggest it is Marshall who has risen to the top of Liverpool’s hit-list.

The Merseysiders are facing tough competition to find a new ‘keeper with other targets apparently destined to go elsewhere.

Australian Mat Ryan, currently at Club Brugge, is wanted by Roma and Fiorentina’s Norberto Neto appears to be heading to Juventus

Stoke’s Asmir Begovic is another option, but he is thought too expensive with Liverpool working to a tight transfer budget this summer unless Raheem Sterling exits Anfield in a big money move.
That means Marshall is said to be right on Rodgers’ radar, having been linked with the club before as well as across town rivals Everton.

Marshall’s stunning form in the Premier League also saw him linked with Arsenal and Tottenham last summer, but he stuck with the Bluebirds for a disappointing Championship campaign.
Marshall joined Cardiff from Norwich six years ago and has gone on to make 237 appearances for the club. He was rated the best goalkeeper in the Football League by former boss Malky Mackay and one of very few Bluebirds players to excel during the club’s only season in the Premier.

Current Cardiff manager Russell Slade has also made no secret of the fact he is a big fan of Marshall, but with his own funds limited in the transfer window in the close season an approach by Liverpool might prove too much for the Bluebirds and the player himself to resist.

The goalkeeping department at Cardiff is set to go through a radical overhaul this summer anyway. Back-up shot-stopper Simon Moore is being linked with a £500,000 move to join new Leeds boss Uwe Rosler at Elland Road.

Cardiff bought 25-year-old Moore from Brentford in 2013 for £150,000, but he has made just 15 appearances for the Bluebirds since. He was handed a chance to show what he could do last season when Marshall had an ankle injury
.
Moore played 10 Championship games, conceding 14 goals and keeping one clean sheet, but once Marshall was fit again he was straight back in.

Current Cardiff goalkeeping coach Richard Hartis is being linked with a move to take up the same position under Rosler at Leeds also. Hartis joined Cardiff with former manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and had previously been with the Norwegian at Manchester United and Molde too.


this is a little meh.. but he was outstanding the season Cardiff where in the premiership, but not 'outstanding' enough to keep them up...

 

[gkmacca]

'Wanted: a goalkeeper who is good enough to play in the first team but will be content to spend the next three years of his career watching games from the bench'.

 

[StevieM]

When did Deathstroke start managing Cardiff?

 

[cloggypop]

He's not Brad Jones.

 

[reuque]

Funny that journos write this up as a shock move when the real shock would be when we actually target someone above mediocre. Mediocre shite like this is the bread and butter of the fucking transfer committee.

 

[gkmacca]

I think it's high time we either go with the most senior reserve keeper we have and make him number 2, or we completely revamp the coaching set up for keepers at the club. I know it happens at many clubs these days, but bloody hell, what are we doing with a great chain of young keepers at the club when there seems to be not the slightest interest in promoting them to the first team squad?

Ward made it in the latter stages of last season but only because Jones was crocked. I mean, this isn't supposed to be a charitable concern. We're supposed to be producing players to compete for every position. But our keepers just faff around for about five or ten years and then disappear. God knows to where. We don't use them, and we don't make any money out of them.

The talk is always of putting pressure on the first team keeper. Well let's start putting some pressure on the coaches of the reserve team keepers, too. If they can't find and develop a keeper good enough, at least, to sit on the bench all through a season, sack the bastards.

Barring a freak injury or a rare suspension, an old keeper on big wages is just a waste of resources when we could actually be investing a bit of faith and coaching time on a keeper who's come up through the ranks. We might even be able to sell him on for an actual fee after a few years, as well.

There's no logic in the current set up. Buy an expensive, experienced keeper, then put him on the bench, don't ever play him in the reserves, and rely for back up on someone who's lost all match fitness, all form and a fair bit of confidence. Meanwhile the likes of Ward or another, on a low wage, play week in week out for the ressies, is sharp and in form and, unlike our semi-retired number two, is still capable of improvement. Madness. Utter madness.