Friendlies pre euros

[Marky]

3 hours ago, BryanBlessed said:

What age would Craig Gordon have to be for people to accept that him being number one for club and/or country is a pretty poor reflection on the keepers behind him in the pecking order?

I can't believe we're producing so few keepers that Clark is even in the SPL. He makes saves I'd expect ato be ny keeper to make but rarely  makes great saves like Marshall, McGregor and Gordon used to make.

His age is irrelevant. The question is whether he's a better keeper than Clark or not. He is.

The only time his age will become relevant is when his age is the reason he is no longer better than the next person in the pecking order.

Buffon played for Italy until he was 40 (as did Dino Zoff) and played Serie A until he was 45. I also strongly suspect that the next person in the Italian pecking order at the time was probably significantly better than Zander Clark.

[BryanBlessed]

11 minutes ago, Marky said:

His age is irrelevant. The question is whether he's a better keeper than Clark or not. He is.

The only time his age will become relevant is when his age is the reason he is no longer better than the next person in the pecking order.

Buffon played for Italy until he was 40 (as did Dino Zoff) and played Serie A until he was 45. I also strongly suspect that the next person in the Italian pecking order at the time was probably significantly better than Zander Clark.

I really didn't think the point I was making was that complicated.

 

Gordon's age is irrelevant as to whether he should be picked or not but it is relevant when making the comparison with Zander Clark.

Zander Clark is more or less at peak age for a goalkeeper whereas most goalkeeper's Gordon's age have already retired. So, if we agree, that Gordon is well past his peak (I don't think that's really debatable) and that he's still better than Clark, that tells me how poor Clark is.  And Buffon was better than Gordon (admittedly know nothing much about Zoff) and already retired from international football at his age.  I suppose it would be the equivalent of one of our outfield players still getting a game at 35 despite being far from the same player. That would tell me we don't have much talent coming through in their position. That's literally all I was saying.

 

As it happens, I don't know if it's the case that Gordon is still better than Clark as he's only played one game (against Spartans) since coming back from serious injury. I see he's signed a new contract with Hearts but I wonder if he might eventually go into coaching with them.