Ali Al-Habsi

Im sorry to push the point but I really can not understand where you are coming from on this one.

To have a veiw now from what you have seen, on one ok performance (Everton) and one good performance (Liverpool) it is very easy to take your stance, Jussi was a proven & respected first team regular and i think he may well have gone pre season for that sort of money.

Sorry, missed Man U & Macc, OK & OK. But Chelsea....

normid norm, I think your comments are aimed at Hopefullwhite, are they?

Regardless, you're off your head if you think anyone would have paid £4m for Jussi, 36, last Summer, with a year left on his contract and past his best. Do you think if we'd have offered him to Dave Whelan instead of Al Habsi he would have accepted then?

To have a veiw now from what you have seen, on one ok performance (Everton) and one good performance (Liverpool) it is very easy to take your stance, Jussi was a proven & respected first team regular and i think he may well have gone pre season for that sort of money.

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You are forgetting his excellent performance against United, granted we conceded 3 but he still made some excellent saves.

Al habsi has had some howlers this season, some fantastic games as well but do I think that we would be in a better position with Al Habsi, no.

Do you think if we'd have offered him to Dave Whelan instead of Al Habsi he would have accepted then?

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With Chris Kirkland and Mike Pollitt to fall back on, I think Pikey Whelan would have!

I know you're kidding, Bricks. Nobody pays that kind of money for a 36 year old. Even Man U only paid £2m for Van der Saar at the same age, and he was far better then that Jussi is now.

I was kiddin'. I believe 4 mil for Al Habsi was a fair price and was one of the few areas of the where we could make money without suffering.

I honestly do understand where you're coming from here Bricks but I disagree. I think we have suffered already with Jussi having lost his edge and an already very shaky makeshift defence having lost some crucial confidence in him. Yesterday I thought Knight and Wheater played really well in the centre of defence and they looked visibly more relaxed with Adam behind them. In fact the whole defence has looked better since Jussi got injured. Now I know part of that's down to Sam's return, some is down to the fact we don't have five of the top six in back to back or nearly so games and some might just be down to Cahill's departure finally having been sorted out BUT I stand by my original point in the summer. GK was about the ONLY area we didn't need to strengthen. With Ali as number one and JJ at two we had to very good keepers for the first team both proven at premiership level. Jussi might have lost his edge and some of his reflexes but he's still a very good second choice is how I saw it then. As the season wore on it became more nd more obvious that Jussi had lost even more than I thought he had.

The inevitable then happened. Jussi missed the Chelsea match and Adam got battered. The glaring hole where Ali used to sit became even more obvious. Now Jussi is injured again and while I know Adam's doing well right now what happens if he gets hurt or suspended? We go to Lainton.

Jussi's age meant we couldn't sell but it also means he's much more liable to injuries and he's definitely not got the reflexes he once did. But used sparingly and intelligently he could have been Ali's back up and he'd probably have played better if he'd been able to rest between appearances more than an occasional Carling Cup outing. His sharpness and fitness would have been better too imo and Adam could comfortably have keeping goal in either the championship or League One to get a solid run of games over a full season rather than waiting for something that might not happen. Let's face it after the Chelsea game I doubt anyone would have been happy if Owen had kept him as the starter.

I know it's all history now but it was still a bad move in my book and finances would back me up. Is 4mil good enough for a prem class keeper for a team if it then goes out of the prem and loses the attendant revenue from Sky and Sponsors?

I seriously doubt it. I'm not going to get into the whole why are we in debt after all this time in the top flight issue again but selling one of our prize assets like that was in my opinion poor business. We're doing better right now than we were and it so happens I believe we'll stay up anyway but if we don't then I'd say one of THE primary reasons for our relegation is that our starting keeper was no longer good enough and it showed in the first half of the season.

Anyway, Adam's doing well and I hope he stays in now and that come the summer I look like a twit for saying he wasn't ready for the prem week in week out yet. He's still got some way to go to prove himself a viable number one for me right now but I have no doubt he's capable of doing it. Good luck Adam and well done for a solid performance yesterday to both you AND our defenders.

If we didnt sell Al Habsi...who would we have up front now?

Coyle had the luxury we dont of seeing all 3 keepers next to each other in training. And he said at the forum that they were listed as

!.Jussi
2.Bogdan
3. Al Habsi

In terms of ability, and i think he was wrong...because its

1.Bogdan
2.Jussi
3. Al Habsi

Ali is a good keeper, but he is too over the top and trys to make an incredible save with every shot he faces. Hes made alot of mistakes because he messes about alot and dives about palming stuff, a good keeper would just stand up and catch.

Lpp, your feelings on Al-Habsi are well documented and understood and your above post well considered and fair. However (sorry there ha to a however) you've not considered three important points which I believe would have been key to OC's thinking at the time.

1. Jussi is a top earner and we were paying Ali very small wages. To promote Ali would have put a huge burden on the wage budget.

2. Nobody knew Jussi was going to be poor this season.

3. Ali wanted to go.

With Adam coming through, with Ali being the only one we could get a big fee for, an with the wage balance, it was good business.

This is the last post I will ever make about the sale of Al Habsi. As TheHateCamel said recently, it has been done to death, he has not been a Bolton player for 18 months and it is time to move on.