Quick one on Bazunu

I don't know the answer. But maybe goalkeeper is the one position Sport Republic would have done well to relax their youth-first transfer policy.

I do not wish to add to the debate about whether Bazunu should be starting. Whether he is performing at an adequate level. Whether we can reasonably expect him to come good in the future. Whether we need to recruit competition.

But like you, I think about it a lot.

Yesterday, Baz made some errors. It didn't really matter in that collective defensive shitshow, a fact that has led both to competing claims that Baz is being scapegoated and that his failings went under the radar. Probably it's both. He was plausibly at fault for the third and fourth goals. For third, I think he may have been unsighted. And for the fourth, it's difficult to parry a stinging shot anywhere ‘safe’ in a box that busy. And yet, he parried another shot into a dangerous area earlier in the game (Bednarek was on hand), and came 35 yards off his line to send a tame header to an opposing midfielder. I don’t keep a log, but he has made some unpunished errors in other games this season too: I can remember him flapping at at least one late cross against QPR.

So often I find myself thinking, what the hell do we do about Baz? Everyone wants him to succeed. But how much rope do you give him, in a season we're trying to get promoted?

I don’t know. And that’s problem: there’s no way to know. It isn’t that Southampton misjudged Gavin Bazunu when they recruited, I don’t think. It's not even that they underestimated the risk that comes naturally with inexperience. It's that risk is fundamentally less manageable with goalkeepers, and maybe for this one position, Sport Republic should have relaxed their youth-first transfer policy.

To explain, I don’t hate the policy. If Southampton buy Gavin Bazunu, Samuel Edozie, Juan Larios, Romeo Lavia, Shea Charles and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, and five of the six turn out well, I think that's a vindication of our strategy. But if Gavin is the struggling one, there is so little Russell Martin can do besides play him every single week, and hope the problem fixes itself. Or drop him, and halt the player’s development, which is supposed to be the core of the strategy.

But if Shea Charles struggles, Martin can manage his exposure. He has Downes and Smallbone, he can draw down Shea’s responsibilities. He can take Shea out of the pivot. He can play him in Cup games, and give him 30 minutes at time to see out league games, and see how he fares. Crucially, I presume it is easier to gauge how an outfield player will perform on a Saturday by their performance in training.

They are no such hedges with goalkeepers. You bet the house or you fold. That is why the Bazunu debate is such a live one, why it got so much attention at the fan forum and such a robust response from the gaffer. Betting on goalkeepers is a casino with one game, and it's called “Red, Black and Three Years of Your Salary”.

This isn’t a problem unique to Southampton. It is inherent in the nature of the position and all clubs must manage it. But it does make me wonder if, perhaps in this one position, Sport Republic would have done well to bend their own rules. Goalkeeper is the cheapest position to recruit and 20 years old is absurdly young for it. I could even be in my fifties when Gavin Bazunu retires from football. Would have been absolutely unconscionable, to pay slightly more, to recruit a goalkeeper who was say 23-24, with maybe three or four seasons of senior league football under his belt? I am not even saying that I don’t rate Gav, or that he won’t come good. I’m just not sure it was a risk we had to take, in position where faith must always be paid in full, up front. By which I mean at the back.

Ah well, suppose this is the headache you get for betting on Portsmouth stock.

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