Today (Tuesday April 27), Manchester City has approached Birmingham City about the possibility of recalling goalkeeper Joe Hart. With Shay Given suffering a horrible shoulder injury against Arsenal last Saturday, City’s only fit goalkeeper is Faroe Islands international Gunnar Nielsen, who isn’t experienced at the top level.
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The problem is, when Hart’s season-long loan deal was arranged, nobody put a clause in saying City could recall Hart. Basically, this means Birmingham have the right to refuse City’s approach. They have good reason to as well. Birmingham’s league position isn’t cut and dried, they are currently in 9th, but if they lose their last two games and the teams around them win, they could end up finishing as low as 13th. That is a difference of about £3million in prize money, which Birmingham certainly won’t want to give up without a fight and they will feel, correctly, that they’re a far stronger team with him than without.
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Hart had hinted, before today that he was most likely to stay at the Blues until the end of the season saying,"As far as I know, that's the way it is – I will be staying here. /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
"I really enjoy what I'm doing with the boys at Birmingham and in training and just try to repay their efforts with my performances." /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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Stuart Taylor, who has previous Premier League experience, has been Given’s backup most of this season, but is injured. Another potential option, David Gonzalez is also injured, which leaves Nielsen as the only senior goalkeeper fit. Nielsen’s only previous experience in English football was a loan spell at Wrexham, where he impressed before injury cut his time there short. City ideally don’t want to hang their Champions League hopes on an untested keeper, who they have no real back-up for anyway, so are trying to bring a goalie in, even though the transfer window has long closed.
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City have applied and received permission to sign a goalkeeper on an emergency loan and are currently making moves to do so. The rumours swirling round today is the Sunderland goalie Marton Fulop is the most likely candidate should their bid to recall Hart fail. Fulop is an excellent keeper who was battling Craig Gordon for the starting job until Gordon finally won out. He has slipped down the pecking order a bit and is currently Sunderland’s number three.
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However, some fans of City’s 4th place rivals are crying foul. City do have 9 keepers on their books, as well as the five keepers named there is Loris Karius (17 years old), Tobias Johansen (19), James Wood (19), and Nathan Dean (18). They all theoretically could play. Mancini obviously doesn’t believe that they are ready so has asked for the emergency loan. /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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Well some people are saying that’s just too bad. With City’s humoungous resources, shouldn’t they have planned better? Isn’t it their own fault if they don’t have a suitable reserve? They also cite Chelsea this season, who having only Ross Turnbull fit to play promoted academy player Rhys Taylor to the bench. Shouldn’t City do something similar?/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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Well in my opinion, no. Other teams have done it in the past, why shouldn’t City? Liverpool signed Paul Jones on an emergency loan in 2004, Sander Westerveld was brought in by Everton in 2006 and Gabor Kiraly was loaned by Villa in 2006. So if other clubs have done it, why not City?/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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With respect to the not having suitable reserves argument, who expects three keepers to be injured at the same time? Things like that are unforeseeable so can’t be planned for. It seems to me that the rules were put in place for precisely this kind of situation, so what’s the problem?/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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Personally, I’d love to see Nielsen get the start to see what he can do (thoguh realistically, Mancini would not take that risk unless absolutely necessary). Nielsen became the first Faroese player in the history of the Premier League when he came on against Arsenal. /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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I was listening to that game on the radio and I was disgusted by the commentators who were making snide remarks, and generally taking the piss out of Nielsen for being from and representing a small nation like the Faroe Islands. One of the two morons (one of whom was a former England international) commentating made a remark along the lines (I can’t quote him exactly) of ‘he only got the job (as Faroes goalkeeper), because he could drive the bus’. That showed his ignorance on two counts. Firstly, the goalkeeper he was thinking about who was a bus driver was Pierluigi Benedettini, the former San Marino (who hold the record for fastest international goal, against England! Always a good stat for shutting an England fan up) goalie, so not a Faroe Islands keeper. Also, most players for the Faroes, and San Marino, and other smaller nations, are amateur so this guy was basically laughing at them for having a job. And people here in England wonder why we never win bids for major tournaments because we are too arrogant? /www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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Anyway, a stint in the Premier League may help him bacome the most famous Faroese goalkeeper since Jens Martin Knudsen (a favourite player of mine). Knudsen would probably like to say he’s most famous for his outstanding performance in the Faores first ever qualifier, making a string of saves where they beat Austria 1-0 in one of the all-time international football shocks. However, he’s porbably more famous to the world for wearing a white bobble hat when he played!/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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He was also in this truly appalling advert for some kind of Faorese liquor!/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>/www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]>
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What do you think, are the Premier League right to allow City to sign a keeper this late in the season?
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