Former Celtic stopper Craig Gordon held back from taking a cheap shot at Vasilis Barkas after Neil Lennon’s number one failed to deal with Connor Goldson’s opening goal in Saturday’s derby.
Speaking to The Scottish Sun, the Hearts keeper almost feels sorry for the Greek international but has backed his experience to help speed up his settling in process:
“It was always going to be difficult for anyone to go into the team in a season of this magnitude, let alone a keeper coming to a new country.
“He needs to settle in and get used to his new surroundings, team-mates and coaching methods. It’s tough.
“I’m sure he’ll come good with the attributes that he has and the places that he’s played. He’s got a number of international caps, so he’s got experience.”
Retaining Fraser Forster was always going to be tough, a mixture of his contract length, potential transfer fee, wages and his form last season meant that it was always likely that he would stay in the Premier League, however, the goalkeeping situation was allowed to drag on for far too long.
With such a big season ahead, Gordon should have been offered a new contract long before he actually did and considerably better terms, his service and success with the club deserved that.
Who would you rather have in goals?
Barkas
Marshall
Gordon
Bain
It’s worth remembering that the Hearts man wasn’t dropped because of a poor run of form, the opportunity to sign Forster arose after Scott Bain injured his hand and he was fighting a losing battle from there.
Personally, I still believe that either Gordon or David Marshall should have been signed, yes it is short sighted, but it would have guaranteed an experienced pair of hands – so to speak – and an almost zero risk strategy – the veteran stopper is right, there is an enormous amount of pressure on Barkas to replace not only Forster, but his predecessor, and carry on the success of previous seasons under the most intense of scrutiny – and so far you would struggle to find many who would award him pass marks.