Where are England’s ’keepers?

Gordon Banks’ glorious one-handed save from Pele in the England-Brazil World Cup match of 1970 in Guadalajara was among the best in the history of the game.

Once upon a time there was Frank Swift. Then came Bert Williams. Gordon Banks was arguably the best of the lot. Though Birmingham’s Gil Merrick, it is true, was horribly fallible in season 1953-54, both against the devastating Hungarians and in a World Cup quarterfinal against Uruguay which England might have won, without his mistakes. Later came the remarkable Gordon Banks, whose glorious one-handed save from Pele in the England-Brazil World Cup match of 1970 in Gua dalajara was among the best in the history of the game. Had he not so mysteriously succumbed to food poisoning on the eve of the Leon quarterfinal in the 1970 World Cup versus West Germany, giving way to a nerve-ridden Peter Bonetti, England would surely have prevailed on that hot and breathless day.

Peter Shilton succeeded Gordon. Like Gordon, he made his name at Leicester City. Shilton himself has admitted his near post guilt when Poland so dramatically and surprisingly held England 1-1 at Wembley in that 1973 World Cup qualifier and thus eliminated them. Domarski managed to squeeze his shot between Shilton and the right post. But over the years and his vast collection of caps, Shilton rescued England time and again. As one who knew him well, and was author of a boys’ novel, ‘Goalkeepers are Different’, I was delighted when he once told me it was the only book he had ever finished and that he never thought anyone could so well understand a young goalkeeper’s problems.

As for Gordon Banks, modest to a fault, I remember him telling me during the 1966 World Cup, which England of course won, “Alf Ramsey has told me my mind’s not got to wander.” Nor did it. But, when Gordon made his England debut at Wembley in May 1963, Ramsey, an unforgiving though much loved boss, was incensed with Banks for allowing Pepe, the Brazilian outside-left, to score with a low, long range free kick: the very thing he’d warned Banks about.

Two years later, in Belgrade, Alf was furious with Gordon again. He had forgetfully, at a Yugoslav free kick just outside the box, stood behind his own defensive wall instead of to one side. “I have just been up to his room,” said Alf afterwards, and I said to him, “One of these days I shall pick up a dagger and blanking well kill you?” But the lessons struck home.

And now? Where is the goalkeeper good enough to play for England? Not, alas, to be seen. At the moment it is yet again the veteran David “Calamity” James. Banks was once asked on a television programme what he thought of James as an England ’keeper, to which the trenchant response was that such a ’keeper needed not to make mistakes; and that James did make them.

Alas, in abundance. That he is tall, strong, brave and agile is beyond dispute. But it is equally indisputable that for club (and he has had so many) and country he is fatally liable to make gross errors. Some years ago, in an England qualifier in Vienna, his errors caused what should have been an easy win to turn into an increasing nightmare. Later, in an early season friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen, he made blunder after blunder — as to be fair did his defence — and England were thrashed 4-1.

Reckless is as reckless does. In the early summer of 2007, in a pointless friendly in Trinidad, James came belting out of his area to his right when there was no need at all to do so, with Rio Ferdinand preparing to clear, and crashed into the lively Trinidad striker, Kenwyne Jones. Kenwyne suffered an appalling knee ligament injury which has kept him out of the game and out of the Sunderland attack, ever since. But who else is there? There is just one major candidate but alas he never seems to play. He is the 25-year-old, 6ft-2in Ben Foster, a Manchester United player who has alas so seldom played for them. Lent out to Watford, he excelled and even turned out for England, but serious knee injury put him out of the game for almost a whole season.

Recalled by United, he turned out for them in an emergency at the very end of last season at Derby after a season’s absence. I was there and was astonished by how well and resiliently he played. Not only had he been out of the game for so long, but till near the end, potentially a keeper’s nightmare, he had had nothing to do. Then Derby at last attacked with brio and Foster made two outstanding saves. This season he started behind the Dutch ’keeper Van der Sar, but that became academic when he was injured again. When will he be back?

Meanwhile, you might say, on with the motley. Paul Robinson, then the Spurs ’keeper, was another disaster for England. Notoriously he gave away a comical goal in Zagreb against Crotia in the qualifiers for the last European Championship, when a pass back bobbled on the pitch, slipped over his foot and ended in the net. He was hardly more convincing when England lost in Moscow, a game they should have won, and made a catalogue of banal errors playing for Tottenham Hotspur, who have since transferred him.

Robert Green of West Ham, once an England ’keeper, has stayed in the squad despite the fact that in a recent game for Hammers at Upton Park he gave away two horribly absurd goals against Bolton Wanderers, who won in consequence.

The crisis in England’s goalkeeping could hardly have been more sharply emphasised than by the fact that there has been seemingly serious talk of Manuel Almunia, the Arsenal goalkeeper, a Spaniard, qualifying for an England role, since he is married to an Englishwoman. To me, that would be the final nail in the coffin. Almunia has done well for the Gunners of late, but he has never fully convinced me as a goalkeeper, even if his earlier tendency to make crucial mistakes seems to have been largely eliminated. He could, perhaps, do better on the crosses. But a Spaniard in goal for England? Some sort of revenge, perhaps, for what happened in 1931 when, Ricardo Zamira, supposedly Europe’s best goalkeeper, came to Highbury with Spain, had an untypical nightmare and conceded seven goals!