Perhaps We Now Feel Like The Agent Who Turned Down The Beatles!

OK, thats a bit much, but...

You do wonder.

I am thinking, irrationally maybe, but it has sprung to mind, about when Leicester sold Gordon Banks-the fans, the town, went mad, couldn't believe what they had done, questions were asked and people weren't happy-he was a real up and coming star and all the rest of it, and they sold him-not only that, but it wasn't to Man Utd or Arsenal, whatever, but to Stoke City!

The reason they did was because of Peter Shilton coming through the ranks, and how the coaches, management, even the players at the club knew he was going to be a great keeper & that they could afford to let Banks go, as he was more than capable of filling the big space left behind.

(this is all put into detail in Shilton's autobiography, he goes onto say how the Leicester fans wouldn't accept him at first, such was their loyalty to Banks.)

Now the Lewis situation is different-or is it? Could we have sold Marshall -and would there have been any takers-knowing Lewis could take over, well, we could have done, but Marshall, having just be signed on big (for us) money might not have taken too kindly to being bombed out, neither might his agent -and they can bad mouth clubs very effectively- and, after all is said and done, we sold Lewis for good money & he was, at the time, third choice keeper. It could be argued that we could have played Gilks, had Lewis as number 2 and not pursued Marshall at all, indeed, when Gilks did sign-and he's a good keeper and will prove it once he moves on from us-I thought that we had given up on Marshall and was surprised when we signed him anyway.

The only other thing I can think of is that Rudd and Steer are both seen as being really exceptional prospects, two of them as well, and that, with that in mind, it was decided to let Lewis move on as at least one of them would eventually come through as a decent first team keeper and maybe someone with a high value ultimately.

Tommy Wright must have a brief to work with and bring them both through and develop their potential as one of his major priorities and it could well be that, in the end, it is one of them that eventually displaces Marshall, and makes it into the big time with us?

Sorry, far too long, but there you go!

And good luck Joe!

Posted By: Martin Peters, Jun 1, 09:58:15