Toon dilemma?

After last week’s blogs that looked at a couple of youngsters from London clubs, I allowed my thoughts to drift to the north east today …

Alan Pardew has to face up to yet another problem up at Newcastle – but this time it’s a nice one to have.

While he’s busy trying to prise the cash out of owner Mike Ashley’s wallet for new additions to his squad this summer, he’ll also have to make a decision on who his top two keepers are for next season.

At the moment he has three good stoppers at his disposal, but he’ll only be able to offer two of them regular first team action in either the league or the cups. One of the three isn’t going to be a happy bunny.

Steve Harper is the loyal and dependable number one at the moment. A local lad, he bided his time sitting on the bench behind Shay Given (and others) for years, but after the Toon’s Championship winning season in 2010, Alan Shearer even suggested that England could have done worse than to take him to the World Cup. Okay, Shearer and Harper are good mates, but the stats backed up his suggestion. Harper was exceptional during the campaign; he has big game and Champions League experience and is known to be a level headed fella. Unfortunately he’s now 36 years of age and so probably not the man the barcodes want to build a team around.

Dutch U21 keeper Tim Krul has been backing up Harper this term. The 23 year old has played 24 first team games (20 in the league including one sub appearance) and kept four clean sheets. He has also shown a great deal of loyalty to the club while other Premier League players of his age – and younger – are throwing their toys out of the pram on a regular basis. But he’s reached an age now when he must feel he has a real claim on the number one jersey.

Third in line this season (and the real reason for the this piece) was Fraser Forster,23, who spent his time out on loan at Celtic and won a Scottish Cup winners medal on Saturday after the Hoops beat Motherwell by three goals without reply. It was Forster’s 24th clean sheet of the season.

True, if you are playing behind Celtic’s defence in the SPL, you shouldn’t find yourself being bothered too much – unless you’re up against Rangers. However, Celtic is a massive club with high expectations and Forster has handled the pressure well according to sources north of the border. He even got his one and only red card in an ‘Old Firm’ game which probably entitles him to pints for life in the supporters’ bar.

In August 2009 I saw Forster play twice. He was on a one month loan at Bristol Rovers at the time (before moving to Norwich for the remainder of the season – at the end of which he won a League One Champions medal) and is a beast of a man at 6’7”. At the time he was only 21 years old and while most men of that age are still growing into their bodies and look slightly ungainly (especially if they are all), Forster looked to be well in proportion. I only spoke to him once, but he came across as a decent guy and I remember thinking I wouldn’t fancy going up against him for a corner – then again I probably would jump higher than his knees anyway.

Whisper it quietly, but if Forster continues improving the way he has in the last three years, we could well be talking about a future England keeper here.

I remember Paul Trollope being slightly miffed that – after the initial one month deal had expired -Newcastle accepted an offer from Norwich to take the lad on loan for the rest of the season.

Forster is also a local boy and would be given time to settle in by the Geordie faithful. However, if he gets the nod over Krul, expect to see the young Dutchman on his bike.

It’s going to be an interesting conundrum for Pardew to solve this summer and I suspect that Harper may well find himself edged out by one of the youngsters as next season progresses, although he’s old and wise enough not to throw a tantrum. He’s also respected enough on Tyneside to be offered a coaching role at the club.

At least Ashley can rest easy knowing he won’t have to splash out on a goalkeeper – it’s the other ten positions he needs to spend money on!