Barclays Premier League Golden Glove Football Betting 2009-2010
Devised as recently as the 2004-2005 season, the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove football betting 2009-2010 market is as fiercely contested as ever as the English football's top flight 'keepers battle it out to bag an award that's as sought after in the highly charged goalkeeping arena as the Premier League Top Goalscorer Betting is to strikers aiming to do the polar opposite to catapult them towards their respective prize at the end of the current Barclays Premiership campaign.
That's right - and in case you weren't aware - amid the race for the Barclays Premier League 2009-2010 title, automatic qualification for the UEFA Champions League and Europa Cup places and the hardly inconsequential matter of staving off relegation from the big league (and the massive pay days it secures clubs competing in) for the Premiership's lesser lights, the remainder of the focus is placed on the goalscoring charts. Or to give it it's Sunday best name, the Golden Boot Award. Which is duly handed over to the striker who's bagged the most goals at the end of the current Premier League campaign, which is all fair in love and war.
But what about the unsung heroes of the Barclays Premiership who gallantly go about their business week in, week out without so much as a 'thank you very much' or a 'kiss my derriere' as a merry band of orchestrational midfielders, cross-perfect wingers and slippery strikers soak up all the praise and attention lavished upon them by fans, pundits and pub tittle-tattle. Yup, we're talking about Premier League goalkeepers. Sometimes the forgotten men at the back, who in the more successful teams barely get their hands on the match ball if up against the league's whipping boys. The good old number 1.
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Which is exactly why the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove Football Betting 2009-2010 came kicking and screaming into being back in 2004. to salute the brave (and usually very gangly) men with oversized hands who can make or break a game of football. When exactly do we find these integral components of a football team making the headlines? Aside from when Petr Cech having his head stoved in by opposition striker's knees, elbows and heads, or David 'Calamity' James (as he was dubbed when between the sticks for Liverpool) gets himself into another fine mess befitting of Laurel and Hardy.
So it was as recently as the 2004-2005 Premier League season that the powers that be somewhere in the corridors of, well, power within the Premier League's administration offices decided to balance the books and reward the goalkeepers with something that would catch the light/reflection on the mantlepieces of their mock Tudor mansions. Hence the introduction of the Barclays Golden Glove, and subsequently what we know know and love as the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove football betting 2009-2010 award. The very first recipient of the accolade for having the safest - and quite possibly, biggest - hands in English domestic football was Chelsea's human punch-baggg and erstwhile 'keeper extraordinaire, Petr Cech. Having kept an impressive 21 clean sheets (the simplistic benchmark by which the goalies are measured by during the season), the regularly bandage-sporting Chelsea stopper was said to be pretty chuffed with the celebratory doorstop, as a new award entered contemporary footballing folklore.
No Surprise To Premier League Betting Fans That Liverpool's Reina Holds Golden Glove Record
There followed a hat-trick of Golden Glove awards for Liverpool's Spanish 'Keeper, Jose Manuel Reina (or Pepe as he's affectionately known to his friends and the footballing nation at large), between 2005-2006 season and the 2007-2008 campaign, where he chalked up 20, 19 and 18 clean sheets respectively to get his massive mitts on the etched piece of silverware. At the end of the 2008-2009 Premier League season, Manchester United's last line of defence, Edwin van der Sar earned the right to puff out his chest and then beat it, after keeping 21 clean sheets throughout the domestic campaign, resulting in his name being the latest to be added to the conundrum.
Goalkeepers are allegedly a breed apart. Funny ossities who command instant respect yet harbour sinister ambitions to clown around at the most inopportune moments in a game. Barking orders and obscenities towards their rear guard as if they'd just pan boiled their children goalkeepers are by their own reckoning difficult to live with out on the pitch. And privy for sudden, unexplained rushes of blood that invite scorn and fury at worst, hero status and cult following at best. every generation a goalkeeper comes along who the TV footballer commentators address as 'a colourful character'. In the 1980s that tag well and truly belonged to Liverpool 'Keeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, who wore it like a badge of honour.
Defending Champion, Van Der Sar In Frame For Barclays Premier League Golden Glove Football Betting 2009-2010 Award
But what we all want to know here and now is just who's in with a shout of landing the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove football betting 2009-2010 award? There's no a better time than the present to look at just who's capable of snatching the glistening trophy off van der Sar as the current 2009-2010 season culminates next May. Just deserts for the trials and tribulations of the modern day goalkeeper can be equally rewarding for you and us though, thanks to the online bookmakers' quick-ish to pick up on this specific internet betting discipline borne out of the more conventional Premier League specials markets that have emerged and prospered in during recent seasons.
We've gone and compiled the current crop of English top flight goalkeeping talent who've got more than a cat in hell's chance of mounting a strong challenge for the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove football betting 2009-2010 gong, and being recognized for their services to football on the same pedestal as Messrs Rooney, Drogba, Torres and Gerrard when it comes to strike forces, as well as Messrs Ferguson, Benitez, Ancelotti and Wenger in terms of managerial guidance. So here it is;
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Jussi Jaaskelainen. Don't smirk at the back. Having been holed up at Bolton since what feels like the dawning of civilisation, the fair-haired stopper has played his part in over 400 games for the Trotters during his 12 year spell at the Reebok. And it's still hard to believe that he's only a mere goalkeeping babe at 33-years of age. Whilst he's a match for any of the Premiership big guns on his day, it's fair to say that the Bolton defence can sometimes front more holes than a pack of Polo mints.
Robert Green. Spoken about as the bright new hope of English goalkeeping (in the same breath as Scott Carson, Chris Kirkland, Ben Foster and Joe Hart before you get too carried away mind), Green might not be Fabio Cappello's favourite son, yet nevertheless he manages to pick balls out of the West Ham United net on a regular basis. He has been known on occasion to effectively stop them from getting that far too, with the assistance of his defenders. Joking apart, Green has been instrumental in the Hammers' struggles for Premiership survival in recent seasons as they've gone through a footballing transition. Consistency being pretty high up the wish list in goalkeepers set to go the distance, Green could be in with an outside chance of grabbing the Barclays Premier League Golden Glove football betting 2009-2010 honour.
David James. He may be nearing 40-years of age, he may still do silly things with his hair and he may consider himself the most intellectual and culturally-savvy footballer ever, but there's no denying Portsmouth's iconic stopper, James isn't going anywhere fast. So just as well he's not a striker then. Thankfully he opted to be a goalkeeper, and he turned into a bloody good one at that. Unless of course you're a Liverpool FC fan, in which case you may beg to differ. But perennial James is a late starter, and as he heads towards the twilight of his footballing career his stockpile of error-strewn gaffs and comedic faux pas' are drying up, as he's rounded into something of a goalkeeping enigma. And being an ever present in the national side, barring injury lay-offs. There's even talk of him being snaffled up by Tottenham or Manchester United during the next transfer window.
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Edwin van der Sar. Current incumbent of the accolade after on-off tussles with Liverpool's Pepe Reina has sculptured himself - either by accident or design - into Manchester United's goalkeeping colossus, Peter Schmeichel. Which given the last time the great Dane turned out for the Red Devils was a decade ago means that it's taken Sir Alex Ferguson a long time to find a suitable replacement. Obviously Massimo Taibi, Mark Bosnich and Roy Carroll couldn't catch a bus between them, so four years after missing out on his man to Fulham he finally bagged the first choice Dutch international keeper in 2005 and has never looked back.
Pepe Reina. Jerzy Dudek's studmarks were going to be difficult to follow in given the near immortality status he had achieved at Anfield during his successful time there – especially in a Champions League context – yet Reina arrived buoyed up for the job in hand. Hands, plural that is. Despite the fact that no one outside of Spain had heard of him (except Liverpool gaffer, Rafa Benitez, who by coincidence held a Spanish passport himself) many Reds' fans thought he might have something akin to a mountain to climb to establish himself in a team that were still flattering to deceive everyone else that they were gunning for their first domestic league title in nigh-on twenty years. But Reina has been magnificent and easily generated the respect he know commands in the Liverpool goalmouth, and explains why he holds the record for most Golden Glove awards to date.
Petr Cech. When he's not keeping his head together - when all around him are possibly losing theirs - the giant Czech keeper is rock solid as the last line of Chelsea's defensive wall; and has been since being invited to plug the gap between the goal posts left vacant by resident Stamford Bridge stopper, Carlo Cudicini before he suffered injury setbacks in 2004 that enabled Cech to assume the mantle of first choice 'keeper instead of the understudy he was brought in under the initial premise of. Will be there or thereabouts again this season and will be chasing Reina and van der Sar all the way.
Almunia Not Good Enough For England, But Key To Arsenal's Premiership Push
Manuel Almunia might not be able to get at look in with the England team at the moment (a mere technicality to do with his nationality apparently), but this hasn't stopped the Arsenal 'keeper pulling out all the stops at The Emirates. And very few balls from his goal net. Originally considered by some critics as the loose link in an exciting, young, thrusting Arsenal side being lovingly pieced together by master tactician, Arsene Wenger, Alumnia soon established himself as indispensable in the aftermath of Jens Lehmen's loss of form and fall-out with the top brass at The Emirates.
Paul Robinson. Blackburn Rovers' ex-Spurs 'keeper and England Number 1 jersey botherer is slowly but surely rebuilding his confidence and reputation as one of the country's best men at the back having enduring a grey patch in his last days at Tottenham Hotspur which had a nasty habit of repeating itself at international level. At Ewood Park Robinson is turning into something of a renaissance man, and painting a far better goalkeeping picture of himself that most of us thought possible after a catalogue of errors forced himself out of the England reckoning before he got a chance to shine and duke it out with David James for the job on a full-time basis.
Shay Given. Manchester City's ex-Newcastle United goalkeeper is having a fine old time of it at Eastlands since his move, and is ably supported in his task by some of Europe's best defenders regularly coming between the Irishman and the Premier League's hot shots. Joleon Lescott, Wayne Bridge, Kolo Toure and Micah Richards sound like a comfort blanket to the modern day 'keeper and provide a solid case for any defence of accusations pertaining to Manchester City not being able to take some honours this season.