If Green comes in for Cech we'll go from having the best 2nd choice in the top 4 to the worst. Arsenal have Szczesny/Ospina, Man City have Hart/Caballero and United have De Gea/Valdes. Should we be looking at someone better? Though obviously a reserve goalkeeper is an ideal spot to be taken up by someone homegrown.

Trouble is you don't tend to get quality ones who accept being second fiddle.

Valdez was a strange one, I just thought it was insurance incase De Gea left this summer so they still have a quality replacement there in that event.

Greens a solid enough keeper most of the time, I'd have no problem with him as back up to Tibo.

If Green comes in for Cech we'll go from having the best 2nd choice in the top 4 to the worst. 

 

Rob Green has made 109 saves this season, more than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League. 

 

He has a save percentage of 68.13% which is the 10th best in the league, Courtois (6th) has a save % of 70.59 and De Gea has the highest at 74.29. 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/mar/30/premier-league-stats-chelsea-manchester-united

 

Rob Green has actually had a very good season at QPR.

If Green comes in for Cech we'll go from having the best 2nd choice in the top 4 to the worst. Arsenal have Szczesny/Ospina, Man City have Hart/Caballero and United have De Gea/Valdes. Should we be looking at someone better? Though obviously a reserve goalkeeper is an ideal spot to be taken up by someone homegrown.

 

Szczesny is sh*t and Ospina is nothing special. I rate Green better than both of them, i also think he is better than Caballero and Valdes too. Valdes has never been a top goalkeeper, he was never making many outstanding saves throughout his Barcelona career, he is very easy to score against.

Rob Green better than Victor Valdes? Steady on!

 

I think Richard makes a very good point - Green is alright but doesn't compare to the backup goalkeepers a lot of the other top sides have. Barca have ter Stegen, Real have Keylor Navas, Bayern have Reina, Man City have Caballero, Man Utd have Valdes, Arsenal have Ospina (etc.) Most of the positive feeling I have regarding this deal is 'well we had Turnbull for four years and got away with it'. The main selling point is that he's English. Maybe I'm being harsh, I don't know, maybe he just seems like an awful prospect in comparison with the unparalleled security I feel now from having Cech and Courtois on the books.

 

I was e-mailing my mate about this and I think he put it quite well:

 

I mean, if Rob Green had to play against Sunderland it would be alright, but if you had to play him in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, I'm pretty sure the whole of Chelsea would have a collective 'Why the f**k does Rob Green play for us' moment. If that makes any sense.

To be fair Schwatcher (never remember how to spell his name) had little European experience when we signed him and he conducted himself well.

Green has played in International Finals so he's not completely inexperienced.

Okay he's no Petr Cech but then not many clubs have depth in quality in the keeping department, I think Green would be a solid if unspectacular back up.

The fact he has experience in the EPL, international level and is English so he ticks plenty of boxes for us.

The quota of homegrown players is vital just now and having a back-up English keeper would do us a turn.

He doesn't have to be a world class keeper, he in all likelihood would be getting less than a dozen games a season unless injury or suspension occurs.

He doesn't have to be a world class keeper, he in all likelihood would be getting less than a dozen games a season unless injury or suspension occurs.

Or Courtios tries that silky skills move again...! ;-)

I am to some extent playing devil's advocate here, but to be honest I'm still not convinced.

 

In terms of international experience Rob Green has 12 England caps, 5 of which were in competitive games, two of which were against Andorra and Kazakhstan. He played one game at an international tournament and was so awful that he was immediately dropped for a 39-year-old David James. He has never played in Europe.

 

The only trophy he has ever won was the First Division title with Norwich more than ten years ago. To say he has any extensive or positive experience of anything beyond the Premier League is a stretch, and even then he has been relegated three times and judging by QPR's performances this season, probably a fourth time by May. Not to say any of them were his fault of course, it just speaks to the level he is used to. Again, it seems a lot like the only appeal of signing Rob Green is that he's English.

 

Mark Schwarzer, on the other hand, was a key part of a Middlesbrough side and a Fulham side which made it to the UEFA Cup/Europa League final. He was also one of the Premier League's best keepers for a decade. Cudicini was an excellent club servant who had been spectacular as our first choice before Cech arrived, and Hilario had been out of favour at Porto for a little while but nonetheless had previous experience with them of winning titles and playing in Europe.

 

Our reserve goalkeeper likely won't have to play often, but precedent suggests that isn't necessarily true. Just last year we had our reserve keeper playing in both legs of a Champions League semi-final, in 2009/10 our backup had to fill in during a last 16 game against Inter which we ultimately lost, and who can forget Hilario's spectacular debut against Barcelona during the Cech/Cudicini injury crisis?

 

As I said I don't expect whoever we get in to be anywhere near as good as Cech, but then there are maybe (being generous) five keepers in the entire world who are, one of whom already plays for us. Hilario was a brilliant goalkeeper, I was never concerned when he had to fill in, even against world-class opposition. The same was true of Schwarzer and Cudicini. It isn't likely to happen, it doesn't often happen, but it might happen and has happened, and we need somebody we can trust whole-heartedly. I don't think I can genuinely say that about Rob Green.

Again, it seems a lot like the only appeal of signing Rob Green is that he's English.

 

But let's not understate how appealing that is. There is a restriction on the number of non homegrown players we are allowed in the squad, to fill one of those places on a player who realistically could not play a single minute for the whole season could be a massive waste.

 

Give the reserve keepers role to Green and suddenly we could sign an outfield player who is a lot more likely to get playing time. 

Not sure what some people expect of a reserve keeper but they ain't all Petr Cechs. They have to be happy with not getting much (if any) playing time but professional enough to keep themselves in top condition in case they're called upon. They can't take up too many resources, be that wages or a foreign spot and they can't require too much of a bedding in period. Green knows the league, he knows what's required and he's been one of QPR's best players this season.

 

Who else is realistically available? Ruddy? 

But let's not understate how appealing that is. There is a restriction on the number of non homegrown players we are allowed in the squad, to fill one of those places on a player who realistically could not play a single minute for the whole season could be a massive waste.

 

Give the reserve keepers role to Green and suddenly we could sign an outfield player who is a lot more likely to get playing time. 

 

It's a massive, massive gamble to take.

 

Imagine if Cech had got injured in the Newcastle game in May 2012, we would have had Ross Turnbull (a goalkeeper who was not only not close to good enough for Chelsea's ambitions, but not even good enough for the Premier League or arguably even the Championship) starting for us in two Cup Finals. We would have been crushed by Bayern, wouldn't have been able to sign Eden Hazard, or Diego Costa, or Cesc Fabregas, or maybe even Mourinho for that matter. I don't think we ever appreciated how truly fortunate we were that Turnbull never had to play a serious game for us.

 

It's possible our backup goalkeeper won't play much, but it's also possible that he will be thrust into the limelight at an absolutely crucial moment - we know this because it has happened before. Thankfully then our backup was quality and we didn't pay for it; that doesn't mean that we should write off the risk of this now, it means that we got by through a combination of being prepared for it when injury to our first-choice came, and being extremely lucky when it didn't.

 

Incidentally Courtois was injured for a game in the league against Almeria last season for Atletico, which meant they had to throw in Daniel Aranzubia, a keeper who had basically spent his entire career in the lower mid-table of La Liga (other than one run in the Intertoto Cup with Deportivo and one relegation) and whose only previous gametime with Atletico had been in the early rounds of the cup and in a Champions League dead rubber group stage game. He gave away a penalty, got sent off and Atletico lost 2-0 and dropped out of first place, essentially entirely because of him. This wasn't even a particularly hard game.

 

The appeal of signing English players is obvious, but that doesn't mean we should be compromising on our squad quality, and it certainly shouldn't mean that we are looking at players for that reason and that reason alone. Signing a decent backup keeper and signing players who are more likely to have playing time aren't mutually exclusive; why not go for an English player who is actually good? Milner's available, we could replace Ramires with him (arguably an upgrade in itself) and avoid having to sign a goalkeeper who simply isn't good enough to be playing for Chelsea. We wouldn't even be considering Green if he wasn't English.

 

Also I think it is fatuous to say that it is naïve to expect a replacement as good as Cech. Not just because I've addressed it and it's impossible, but because I don't want a replacement as good as Cech, I wouldn't want them to run the risk of deteriorating for our benefit. I want a keeper as good as Hilario. Rob Green isn't.

Rob Green not as good as Hilario?

Very debatable.

can't wait for this signing think he could take us to the next level....

realistically though he would be a good back up for Courtois. Certainly better than hilario or turbulent ever were.

It's a massive, massive gamble to take.

 

Imagine if Cech had got injured in the Newcastle game in May 2012, we would have had Ross Turnbull (a goalkeeper who was not only not close to good enough for Chelsea's ambitions, but not even good enough for the Premier League or arguably even the Championship) starting for us in two Cup Finals. We would have been crushed by Bayern, wouldn't have been able to sign Eden Hazard, or Diego Costa, or Cesc Fabregas, or maybe even Mourinho for that matter. I don't think we ever appreciated how truly fortunate we were that Turnbull never had to play a serious game for us.

 

It's possible our backup goalkeeper won't play much, but it's also possible that he will be thrust into the limelight at an absolutely crucial moment - we know this because it has happened before. Thankfully then our backup was quality and we didn't pay for it; that doesn't mean that we should write off the risk of this now, it means that we got by through a combination of being prepared for it when injury to our first-choice came, and being extremely lucky when it didn't.

 

Incidentally Courtois was injured for a game in the league against Almeria last season for Atletico, which meant they had to throw in Daniel Aranzubia, a keeper who had basically spent his entire career in the lower mid-table of La Liga (other than one run in the Intertoto Cup with Deportivo and one relegation) and whose only previous gametime with Atletico had been in the early rounds of the cup and in a Champions League dead rubber group stage game. He gave away a penalty, got sent off and Atletico lost 2-0 and dropped out of first place, essentially entirely because of him. This wasn't even a particularly hard game.

 

The appeal of signing English players is obvious, but that doesn't mean we should be compromising on our squad quality, and it certainly shouldn't mean that we are looking at players for that reason and that reason alone. Signing a decent backup keeper and signing players who are more likely to have playing time aren't mutually exclusive; why not go for an English player who is actually good? Milner's available, we could replace Ramires with him (arguably an upgrade in itself) and avoid having to sign a goalkeeper who simply isn't good enough to be playing for Chelsea. We wouldn't even be considering Green if he wasn't English.

 

Also I think it is fatuous to say that it is naïve to expect a replacement as good as Cech. Not just because I've addressed it and it's impossible, but because I don't want a replacement as good as Cech, I wouldn't want them to run the risk of deteriorating for our benefit. I want a keeper as good as Hilario. Rob Green isn't.

 

If you hadn't put this much effort into this, I'd assume you were joking but essentially you've said that for the sake of our future successes, we need a keeper as good as Hilario?

 

Rob Green is better than Hilario and yes the English thing is a factor, but who else is out there? Courtois is the established number one so you need someone content to be a back-up but experienced enough to be able to do a job if required. Green ticks a lot of the boxes.

I wish Green had Thibault's stature, then we could refer to him as the jolly green giant, ho ho ho.

I'm disappointed but unsurprised to hear Hilario's sterling contribution to Chelsea being unappreciated, as it was throughout his time at the club. I assume it was down to a combination of his name and his infrequent appearances rather than the quality he actually showed on the pitch. Quite possibly the best third-choice goalkeeper I have ever witnessed and certainly superior to Green.

 

I've never encountered another player who could spend so long out of the first team (bear in mind he was third choice for the majority of his time here) and step onto the pitch like he'd never been away. He played some absolutely massive games for us and played badly maybe twice (the 4-2 against Man City when we were down to 9 men and that game against Blackburn in the League Cup when we had Paulo Ferreira at centre back and lost on penalties). He looked a bit uncertain in the couple of games he got under AVB... then again who didn't? He did all of this without once complaining and while in fact doing everything he could to help Cech out. That is a backup keeper - solid, reliable, humble and pure class.

 

Anyway all of that is besides the point (not that anybody has really addressed any of them). Rob Green has been inconsistent and gaffe-prone throughout his career, he's poor in the air and his distribution is shocking. He has experience of the league but not of big games or of European competition. Again, his biggest appeal is that he is English and that simply isn't enough. It reminds me of when Fat Sam picked up Roger Johnson on loan last year with his reasoning being "he's tall and not cup-tied". Unsurprisingly he was sh*t.

 

In terms of other keepers - Fiorentina's Norberto Neto is out of contract at the end of the season, we could pick him up. We could probably get another year out of Morgan de Sanctis, Jussi Jaaskelainen or Brad Friedel. Any of those would be preferable to Green. In terms of 'jump the shark' options, Samir Handanovic, Sergio Romero and Beto are [as it stands] out of contract at the end of the season but would almost certainly want first-team football.

I read recent interview with him where he said that he doesn't want to leave QPR for other club.

I think that question was regarding going to Chelsea FC.

Seems like a good choice to me. A reasonable keeper with lots of PL experience, plus he won't take up an overseas squad berth. Most clubs will only have an average back up keeper, for the simple reason that anyone good enough to be first choice is unlikely to settle for being second.

I'm disappointed but unsurprised to hear Hilario's sterling contribution to Chelsea being unappreciated, as it was throughout his time at the club. I assume it was down to a combination of his name and his infrequent appearances rather than the quality he actually showed on the pitch. Quite possibly the best third-choice goalkeeper I have ever witnessed and certainly superior to Green.

 

 

 I'm sure we all have a certain fondness for a decent keeper who did a job for us but was hardly exceptional. I could say very much the same for Kevin Hitchcock.

 

 

In terms of other keepers - Fiorentina's Norberto Neto is out of contract at the end of the season, we could pick him up. We could probably get another year out of Morgan de Sanctis, Jussi Jaaskelainen or Brad Friedel. Any of those would be preferable to Green. In terms of 'jump the shark' options, Samir Handanovic, Sergio Romero and Beto are [as it stands] out of contract at the end of the season but would almost certainly want first-team football.

 

All decent options, but considering the club made an attempt to get John Ruddy in the recent history I would say that Rob Green is a far more realistic option. 

 

Nice posts though.

Edited March 31, 201511 yr by Blue Daze

I read recent interview with him where he said that he doesn't want to leave QPR for other club.

we should stay away from him then, hes obviously mentally unstable.

Seems like a good choice to me. A reasonable keeper with lots of PL experience, plus he won't take up an overseas squad berth. Most clubs will only have an average back up keeper, for the simple reason that anyone good enough to be first choice is unlikely to settle for being second.

 

Pepe Reina, Victor Valdes, David Ospina, Willy Caballero, Marc-André van ter Stegen, Keylor Navas, Bogdan Lobont and arguably even Jan Oblak all beg to differ!

 

 

 I'm sure we all have a certain fondness for a decent keeper who did a job for us but was hardly exceptional. I could say very much the same for Kevin Hitchcock.

 

All decent options, but considering the club made an attempt to get John Ruddy in the recent history I would say that Rob Green is a far more realistic option. 

 

Nice posts though.

 

Haha you patronising sod!

 

Yeah I loved Hitchcock too, was only really around for the latter part of his career but still. Then again the club's ambitions were lesser and the margin for error far greater when Hitchcock was around. Green may be a more realistic option, but undoubtedly an inferior one. I would really prefer us to go for Milner or another homegrown outfield player who wouldn't consist of such a massive sacrifice in quality and go for a foreign backup keeper. If it's only for a year or two we can always reassess the situation at the end of that period.

 

It sounds like we are all more or less resigned to this happening. Let us pray that Courtois doesn't get injured at any significant point over the next two seasons or we are likely utterly f**ked. I think I will cry if I ever see the headline "Robert Green ready for first European game against Barcelona" or "Robert Green not shaken by the pressure of coming up against Messi" or "Green with envy- 'Rio Ferdinand is playing against Rotherham and I am at the Nou Camp' says European neophyte" (maybe a little less at the last one).

 

Haha you patronising sod!

 

 

Ha not at all. I genuinely think they're some interesting posts. Unique too

 

 

Yeah I loved Hitchcock too, was only really around for the latter part of his career but still. Then again the club's ambitions were lesser and the margin for error far greater when Hitchcock was around. Green may be a more realistic option, but undoubtedly an inferior one. I would really prefer us to go for Milner or another homegrown outfield player who wouldn't consist of such a massive sacrifice in quality and go for a foreign backup keeper. If it's only for a year or two we can always reassess the situation at the end of that period.

 

I really think Milner is problematic for a few issues (he's Leeds scum through and through) but mainly because there will be teams offering him 3-4 year contracts which is important at his age. I'd rather focus on improving the first eleven and using our academy to fill out the squad.

 

 

It sounds like we are all more or less resigned to this happening. Let us pray that Courtois doesn't get injured at any significant point over the next two seasons or we are likely utterly f**ked. I think I will cry if I ever see the headline "Robert Green ready for first European game against Barcelona" or "Robert Green not shaken by the pressure of coming up against Messi" or "Green with envy- 'Rio Ferdinand is playing against Rotherham and I am at the Nou Camp' says European neophyte" (maybe a little less at the last one).

 

Well you always want the second best keeper in the world to be available but I must have a slightly higher opinion of Green than you. He's by no means top-class but he's a very capable shot-stopper and a good pro by most accounts. We each have different criteria but to me he's pretty much exactly what I want in a back-up.

I personally think Green would be a step up from Turnbull, Schwarzer and Hilario.

I'd have no problem if he were to stand in for a few games, he's more than solid enough to do so.

I think Green is quite underrated, he is a superb shot stopper but has a daft mistake in him, always has. Which is why I would worry having him as back up, usually the only way to remove errors from a players game is to play him consistently, and as a stand by he wouldnt get that. 2nd keeper is becoming such a specialised squad position now at the top teams as the best keepers are rarely rested/injured etc.