(13-02-2019, 20:06)spireitematt Wrote:(12-02-2019, 19:45)Devongone Wrote: I've always liked Joe Hart but he just doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence, or even paragraph, as.
Gordon Banks.
You can't compare the two. Gordon Banks was a top goalkeeper. Bob Wilson compares De Gea to Gordon Banks.
A question you could answer Dev, Dancing or SaltergateBorn. Is the game quicker now than it was 30-40 years ago? and is it better today?
Yes the game is quicker. The ball has been changing rapidly since I was in my teens. The equipment is different. When I got a pair of thin, green, cotton goalkeeping gloves I thought that they were the height of professionalism. The boots are now lightweight flexible shoes full of feel. Shinpads used to bulk your legs out so much you felt like you were running on someone else's legs. And the pitches at every level are better. Derby County used to play some amazing football on the shit-heap of the Baseball Ground.
Bob Wilson is a nice guy and very honest, but not always the sharpest of knives. De Gea has neither Bank's ease of movement, nor his anticipation. He's very very good and getting better, but no, he might make the same paragraph. Never the same sentence as Gordon Banks.
Goalkeeping now is a whole different thing to my day. Now a keeper is a blocker, a kicker and a distributor. In my day he was a handler, a director and an initiator. Sir Alf Ramsey would've killed Gordon Banks if he'd caught him doing a Cruyff turn before providing a lay-off to his centre-back.