Party Pooper Craig Gordon

Posted by Luke on December 5, 2007 5:42 PM | Permalink

There has been a plenty of reason to be optimistic for Sunderland's players this week following the victory over Derby County last weekend - unless you happen to be Craig Gordon.

There has been a rare night on the town for the players to celebrate a victory, Roy Keane will have been in a surprisingly good mood on the training ground all week, Christmas is just round the corner and the club have just told the first team squad there will be party poppers at the Christmas party (possibly!)

Gordon, though, will be forgiven, if he is more interested in being the party pooper than the party popper following his omission from the side which secured the club its first Premier League victory since September.

I’m sure the Scot smiled through his pain last weekend - football, after all, is a team game and there is no room for mardy bums unless you happen to be as gifted as, say, George Best, - but there is no question he will be hurt and upset by what has happened. His dropping came as a shock to most observers and, I suspect, it was a shock to the player as well.

When you are not only the club’s record signing, but also the British record transfer for a goalkeeper, the last thing you want to happen is to be dropped to the bench. Even though the 24-year-old, as far as I can remember, has done very little wrong since he arrived, the fact Keane decided not to select him against Derby means there will, automatically, be more attention than ever on him.

Having generally taken everything in his stride since he arrived in England, suddenly questions will be asked about his ability, not just on Wearside, but also in Scotland where he has been his country’s undisputed number one for the last two years.

There was bound to be pressure on Gordon because of the size of the fee, but he has not made any huge blunders, he has not dropped any Titus Bramble-style calamities and he has not looked as shaky as, say, Kelvin Davis did when he was between the sticks at the Stadium of Light.

But, when you spend £9m on an individual you expect £9m worth of performances. While Gordon has been solid, he has not been as spectacular as the size of the transfer fee demands.

I’m wary of being overly harsh on the lad because, as I’ve said, he has not done anything wrong, but when he signed back in August, Keane suggested he would be worth X amount of points a season. But how many points has he earned the Black Cats so far this season?

I suspect Keane’s decision was made because Gordon, behind-the-scenes, has been putting himself under pressure. Maybe he felt he wasn’t justifying his price tag - easy to do when you’ve just conceded seven goals at Everton - maybe he felt responsible somehow for Scotland’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008, but Keane obviously felt he needed a rest.

Let’s not forget that, having persuaded the board to spend so much money on him, Keane’s reputation is also on the line when it comes to Gordon so it cannot have been an easy decision for him to make either. £9m on a goalkeeper who is warming the bench - when considered alongside the £5m spent on another substitute last weekend, Michael Chopra - what were you thinking Roy?!

It was one of those managerial decisions which could easily have back-fired on Keane - look what happened to Steve McClaren when he decided it was a good idea to give Scott Carson his competitive debut for England in a vital game against Croatia earlier this month!

Darren Ward had not played since April, he could have been rusty and could have dropped a monumental blunder which cost Sunderland the game last weekend. Instead, Ward slots into the side perfectly, pulls off one vital save in the first-half and even gets away with dropping a corner when Dean Whitehead blocks on the line.

I wouldn’t say Keane is a lucky manager - Sunderland have endured their fair share of misfortune this season of which Carlos Edwards’ broken leg is just the latest example - but when things like that go right for you, it bodes well for the future.

How long Gordon is forced to sit on the bench remains to be seen, but I doubt very much if it will be forever. He has been taken out of the firing line for his own good, but if he was under-pressure when he signed because of the attention on him, just imagine what it will be like when he earns his recall!