Live

Highlights on Off The Ball

07:00 AM-01:00 PM

Highlights on Off The Ball
Advertisement

Sport

"They must wonder how we're producing these 'keepers" | Gavin Cooney

Cooney joined Nathan on Thursday’s Football Show and ran the rule over Ireland’s goalkeeping options.



Football writer Gavin Cooney has spoken about the apparent golden era of goalkeepers in the current Ireland national men’s side.

Portsmouth’s Gavin Bazunu has been Stephen Kenny’s preferred option between the posts in recent Ireland games.

However, the former Shamrock Rovers ‘keeper faces stiff competition from Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher and Mark Travers, who plys his trade at Championship flyers Bournemouth.

Ireland kick off their 2022 fixtures with a friendly at home to FIFA's #1 ranked side Belgium.

Cooney joined Nathan on Thursday’s Football Show. The42 writer ran the rule over Ireland’s goalkeeping options.

“It’s quite conceivable that Travers is the only first-choice Irish ‘keeper in the Premier League next year,” Cooney said. 

“He’s gone quite under the radar - and if you ask Stephen Kenny about his best goalkeepers, he always lists off the ones that aren’t playing.”

“In fairness to Travers, he has bounced back extremely well since the nightmare in Belgrade. He played poorly in that game and got chipped by Mitrović quite embarrassingly.”

“He’s been playing extremely well for Bournemouth - nobody has kept more clean sheets in the Championship than him this season.”
“They look like they have a pretty good shot at promotion this season.”

Travers 14 November 2019; Mark Travers of Republic of Ireland during the International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland and New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

The best players in the same position: a classic conundrum

Cooney also considered how the Irish side may be falling prey to a classic problem in international football: having your best players confined to one position.

“There must genuinely be nations in Europe glancing our way and wondering how we’re producing all these goalkeepers,” Cooney beams.

“You could maybe say it’s typical of Irish football that we have depth in the one position where you can’t play more than one!”

“We’ve all read - and many of us wrote about it over the weekend - about Caoimhin Kelleher being a striker at Ringmahon Rangers, so unless he’s repurposed David James-style…”

“At the moment, Bazunu has the jersey - but it’s all circumstantial.”

Cooney added that how the current pecking order is as much down to luck and injuries as anything else.

“Kelleher was probably in line to get that jersey when Randolph was injured at the start of the World Cup qualifying campaign. But he was injured at a pretty luckless time.”

“So in came Travers, and he didn’t perform against Serbia. So in came Bazunu, and he has performed.”

“There is absolutely no reason why Bazunu should be taken out of the Ireland team at the moment.”

“The fact that Kelleher is there putting so much pressure on him is a good thing, in terms of keeping Bazunu on his toes and keeping him at a pretty high level of performance.”

Football on Off The Ball brought to you by Sky. All the football you love in one place across Sky Sports, BT Sport & Premier Sports.

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.


Read more about

Caoimhin Kelleher Football On Off The Ball Gavin Bazunu Ireland Football Team Mark Travers The Football Show

Live: Title

Description

Added to queue
Removed from queue

On Air

Share

Share

Next up in queue

Title
Description
Duration

There are currently no podcasts in the queue

Go to podcasts

On Air

Highlights on Off The Ball

Highlights on Off The Ball

07:00 AM-01:00 PM

Share

Up next

LIVE: OTB Weekend

LIVE: OTB Weekend

01:00 PM-01:30 PM

Share

LIVE: The Saturday Panel

LIVE: The Saturday Panel

01:30 PM-02:30 PM

Share

LIVE: OTB Weekend

LIVE: OTB Weekend

02:30 PM-03:00 PM

Share

LIVE: OTB Football Saturday

LIVE: OTB Football Saturday

03:00 PM-05:00 PM

Share

Highlights on Off The Ball

Highlights on Off The Ball

05:00 PM-12:00 AM

Share

Repeat: OTB AM

Repeat: OTB AM

12:00 AM-02:00 AM

Share

Repeat: Off The Ball

Repeat: Off The Ball

02:00 AM-05:00 AM

Share

Repeat: OTB AM

Repeat: OTB AM

05:00 AM-07:00 AM

Share

Highlights on Off The Ball

Highlights on Off The Ball

07:00 AM-01:00 PM

Share

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Share on