Almunia third in Player of the Season poll

Manuel Almunia has been voted in third place in 02/Arsenal.com’s Player of the Season poll.

The Spanish keeper collected 10.4 per cent of your votes and the achievement will be celebrated with his own personal week on the Club’s official website.

To kick it off, Arsenal.com editor Richard Clarke argues why the Club’s “Cinderella man” heartily deserved his place on the podium.
 
This was a pivotal season for Manuel Almunia.

The Spanish keeper was in a rarely-found position 12 months ago. He was well past the footballing watershed of 30 and yet was embarking on his opening season as first-choice in his position at a top club.

It has been said that Arsène Wenger views his goalkeepers in numbers – height, weight, physical tests etc. And the stats tell a tale with Almunia too.

His age suggested he had enough experience to cope with the white heat of elite competition however, at the same time, he did not yet have the games to back it up.

A tally of 40 Premier League starts in four years amounted to just over one ever-present campaign. Given that his understudy, Lukasz Fabianski, was largely untried, you knew Almunia would pretty much double his tally during the course of 2008-09. And he did.

Nothing about Arsenal’s last campaign was perfect but their keeper did little wrong.

The first job was to play through the season at a high level. Tick.
The next was to make few mistakes. Tick.

And perhaps the hardest requirement was to make a major contribution in a major game. Yet this was a double tick.

Almunia was the single factor that stopped Arsenal’s second ever appearance in the Champions League Semi-Final being effectively over within the first 30 minutes at Old Trafford.

He made at least three world-class saves on the night to help his side cling to the coat-tails of their European adventure. There was no bigger game in which to pull out a massive performance.

However, for some people, neither Almunia’s numbers nor his displays will ever be enough. His lack of big-name background means he is often too quickly criticised for any slips.

Let’s put it another way. Had he been called Buffon or Casillas, cost £15 million and had Europe’s top clubs on his CV rather than, with the greatest respect, Cartagonova, Sabadell, Eibar, Recreativo Huelva and Albacete, then last season would have been another confirmation of class.

Yes you could ask questions of him against Spurs and Stoke back in October and November but then again finding mistakes from modern-day goalkeepers is like shooting fish in a barrel. Edwin van der Sar, Pepe Reina and Petr Cech have all made errors this year however their status and place in the side was not seemingly under question after every one.

To be fair, Almunia’s appearance in this list suggests that the critics are the vocal minority now. But then apart from exceptional nights like Old Trafford or penalty shoot-outs like the one in Rome, keepers are always more easily remembered for their mistakes.

Strikers and midfielders can quickly build up lump-sums of credit with the fans via goals, assists or incisive effort. Keepers and defenders have to make do with a direct debit of regular consistent performance. However they are always aware that a month of hard work can be undone with 10 dodgy minutes.

Almunia is very much in the black right now. But the challenge does not end there.

If the last 12 months has been about finally confirming he belongs with the Premier League elite keepers, the next 12 will be about trying to prove he can be the best.

You sense that this “Cinderella Man” has that well within his grasp.

[Monday, June 29, 2009]

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