Good to see the ex Gills lad Gazzaniga, demonstrating for Spurs against PSV the quality we found and brought to this country. Now called up for Argentina as well... please log in to view this image
From my early memories of the lad before Hessy brought him over, I'm sure he was originally a striker and a pretty good striker i believe! It was one of the things noticeable very early on at our place, his kicking ability and never frightened to take players on when required. Massive difference to any other keeper i had ever seen at that level. We used to have a winger by the name of Gavin Tomlin, Gazza used to deliver long balls to him with pinpoint accuracy, get a winger and a keeper like that together and it becomes very impressive.
Been quality for us when he’s played. I actually made a thread on our board yesterday about Gazza and Lloris and even mentioned the Cruyff turn, lol. Currently 8 votes to 7 in favour of Lloris as to who fans want to see as number one. I personally want to see Gazza given ago.
I very rarely praise players, and even some of our best players, I've been highly critical of but Gazzaniga was always different. I had a lot of time for the lad, came over without a penny to his name, always respectful, very kind and always had time for the younger fans. I remember before he actually made the first team, I wanted the lad to be given a chance - his chance eventually came to an injury to our ever present first choice keeper, and he never looked back. His dominance in the air and on the ground you just don't get to see that from a keeper at lower league level, so we knew he would eventually go and had found someone special, we just enjoyed it while it lasted. I know it was a bigger step up to the Prem and expectations there are higher, but hey this lad came from nothing. If chance ever came that he could play at Priestfield again, ie in the cup v Spurs. The lads would lift the roof off to welcome Gazzaniga back home.
It's actually good to see a player coming from a lower league do well, rather than some high end player bought for big bucks from distant shores from another big club.
I knew **** all about him when we signed him, other than that he was Saints’ backup keeper and that’s what he’d be here. Made one appearance last season and apart from a shaky opening few minutes he grew into the game and won MOTM. Played 5 games this season and won a further 3 MOTMs including penalty heroics against Watford in the cup. Seems a really good shot stopper (most keepers are to be fair) but his technical ability with the ball is far better than Lloris and Vorm’s. He’s already jumped ahead of Vorm in the pecking order this season and if he continues his form while Lloris continues to suffer dips, I can’t see how Poch can continue to drop him.
I probably only know a fair bit about the lad because lower league is shhite attendances but a smaller community. From memory he had to take digs with the lads when he came over. I'm sure it was Keds (Danny Kedwell, famous for the spot kick that got AFC Wimbledon back into League football) that used to look after the lad (could be wrong). Gazza being a tall lad and good with his feet, used to be ideal in the dying minutes if you was losing and you got a corner, he'd frighten the shhite out of defences, but you can't get away with that at the top level. It used to amaze me how such a tall lad could get down to the low balls when needed, only down side a bit of a risk taker, but as he showed against PSV, he can either be the clown or make you look the clown and 99% of the time it would be the latter.
Yeah I've also noticed he's taken a few risks, all of them have paid off so far but to a degree it's good to see players take risks, in any position, it's often the best players that take the most risks as they're the ones with the bollocks to try and stand out. Everything I've seen of him so far I've been impressed with, makes me wonder why Saints never utilised him more than just a backup seeing as they've had keeper issues of their own. 18 months ago I'd have never said we'd be able to find a keeper to challenge for Lloris' spot but Gazza's doing exactly that. We only paid like £2.5m for him as well, if he keeps this form up, he'll have likely saved us about £40m+ on a new keeper in time to come.
Didn’t think he was going to make it as a PL keeper. But he seems to have ironed out the catastrophic errors he made every time he played for Saints. Good luck to him, he always seemed to have a good attitude. Think we nearly ****ed his confidence, glad the damage wasn’t permanent
This is how Gazza was described in 2012 by our old pit bull Charlie Lee... Defender Lee told BBC Radio Kent: "He's the best goalkeeper outside the Premier League. He's some talent."
@brb Not sure if you knew, Gazza made his debut for Argentina the other night. Came on in the 60th minute as they beat Mexico 2-0. Made a really good save from point blank range as well.
