In a Daily Echo Poll a majority of fans want to see the club bring in a new keeper in the transfer window, however is this just a knee jerk reaction to our recent poor run.
Up until his injury Artur Boruc was one of the most consistent performers in the Premier league this season, having seen most of the games we have played I cant say have seen a better one in any other Premier League team, his individual performances against Liverpool and Swansea did more than any other player that day to ensure we took all three points when a 3 or 4 goal defeat would not have been unfair on us.
Some supporters feel he has made errors, yes the goal at Stoke wasnt great but it was a freak goal and apart from that error at Arsenal his judgement and handling has been pretty much spot on, however some supporters seem to feel that isnt good enough, they feel that we should have a better keeper.
Ironically many of those berating Boruc a few weeks ago then changed direction when he got injured and Paulo Gazzaniga had to deputise, despite it being exactly a year between his last first team appearance and his substitute role against Chelsea a lot of Saints fans seem to have already made up their minds that Gazzaniga is not good enough, knee jerk reactions across websites demanding emergency loans abounded with many supporters suddenly forgetting the policy of bringing on youth team players and demanding a big signing or at least an experienced premier keeper as back up.
But has Gazzaniga really done that bad ? I would say no, against Villa he didnt make any errors and the three goals conceded were as much the fault of a defence suddenly leaking goals as anything else, since that Villa game he has played against two of the most in form attacks in the Premier and only conceded a single goal in each game, yes there have been the odd dodgy moment, but what can you expect when an inexperienced keeper is in effect suddenly thrown to the wolves, like last season Gazza has made mistakes, but no more than any other Saints keeper and if he gets his confidence up then he is a good keeper, in all of his games there has been nothing wrong with his handling and decision making and that is a good sign.
So why do so many Saints supporters want a new keeper to be signed, a combination of the above is the answer, there are some who want Boruc replaced, I would say that we would struggle to find a keeper of a similar standard at a reasonable price, I would also say that we would struggle to find a better keeper who would be willing to come here, we might harbour hopes of Champions League qualification etc, but I would say there are few outside of Southampton who share our optimism, I would be interested to see who they think might come here, I think we have a gem in Boruc we wont get much better.
There are those that just dont have confidence in Gazzaniga as a deputy, again I feel they are just lacking in patience, football teams evolve they arent built overnight, Gazzaniga has let nobody down either last season or this. Last year he was thrown to the wolves with the defence he was asked to play behind, he had a better goals per game ratio than both Davis and Boruc, he definately had a better points per game ration than Kelvin, of course he had dodgy moments but he cant be that bad otherwise both Man City and Newcastle would have had a field day, yes he had an error in each game, but neither resulted in a goal, perhaps he is a lucky keeper and that has a part to play.
So why should we upset a perfectly good plan for building a squad by spending monsy on a new goalkeeper, there are positions we need to address before we do that and indeed there are games that we need to give Gazza a chance in before we start a knee jerk demand for a keeper, Gazzaniga now has at least four games ahead of him possibly more before Boruc returns, by then we should know whether he is a capable deputy or whether we need to consider a more able back up whilst giving the youngster more time to learn and grow in confidence possibly on a loan move.
Till then we should hold judgement and give him our support, in January both Davis and Boruc will return, given Boruc's usual fitness levels etc he isnt going to need a deputy that much hopefully.