If Jaaskelainen has been our best ever keeper who has been the second best?

Stan Hanson had a decent record. Ran the Post Office near Burnden when he retired.

Folk cite Hoppy’s height (5’10” officially) but he never struggled with crosses or massive old school CFs as he had an incredible leap on him and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got higher than most bigger goalies. I’m with Bonce on this - the man was a giant.

wanderlust wrote:Folk cite Hoppy’s height (5’10” officially) but he never struggled with crosses or massive old school CFs as he had an incredible leap on him and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got higher than most bigger goalies. I’m with Bonce on this - the man was a giant.

And keepers didn't get the protection they do now. Ask Harry Gregg. 

wanderlust wrote:Folk cite Hoppy’s height (5’10” officially) but he never struggled with crosses or massive old school CFs as he had an incredible leap on him and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got higher than most bigger goalies. I’m with Bonce on this - the man was a giant.

All sites I can find has his height around shown as 5' 8 to 9 inches.

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Anyway even allowing for being 5' 10" as you claim, then maybe this tweet of Marc Iles who I believe is around that sort of height, puts it into context of how keepers of that size would have to cope with both defenders and attackers all being generally much bigger in size these days.

Either I'm stood in a hole or Wanderers players are just getting taller these days, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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Jaaskelainen better than Hoppy? Its like saying Kevin Davies was better than Lofty.

Jaaskelainen was a decent enough shot-stopper but he rarely dominated his area, was frequently slow or hesitant in reading situations and couldn't hold a light to the decisive, confident, brave, razor-sharp reactions of Hoppy. But if you said best paid, that would be another matter.

And whilst I'm on who are all these folk on WW more interested in Wigan's finances than they are in Bolton's?

I'm not old enough to remember Hopkinson so it has to be Branagan for me closely followed by Kevin Rose (he never grows) 

Ten Bobsworth wrote:Jaaskelainen better than Hoppy? Its like saying Kevin Davies was better than Lofty.

Jaaskelainen was a decent enough shot-stopper but he rarely dominated his area, was frequently slow or hesitant in reading situations and couldn't hold a light to the decisive, confident, brave, razor-sharp reactions of Hoppy. But if you said best paid, that would be another matter.

And whilst I'm on who are all these folk on WW more interested in Wigan's finances than they are in Bolton's?

Great to hear from you again Bob, hope you and yours are all keeping safe.

Clearly I am outnumbered on this one but I still stick by what I've consistently said above in that a Eddie Hopkinson in his prime would be physically unable to cope with the game in the modern era.

If he could then it stands to reason that professional football would be populated with goalkeepers at his height and with a similar skill set as he had and the facts are that there isn't and furthermore I doubt you would even have many/any keepers in the top four tiers of our game under 6 foot, most being even taller than that height.

As for all those on ww they seem more keen on Wigan going bust than interested/understanding anything to do with their finances and most clearly never having any grasp on our clubs finances at the time - or quite frankly since!

I've been interested myself as to what has been going on at Wigan (not so with clubs in general with similar problems like for instance Charlton and Macclesfield) probably because I used to work there at the time they were elected to the football league and sort of had a passing interest in them ever since (although if I ever did have a second team it would have been Bury as they were the only other team apart from ourselves who's score I used to look out for).

I tend to view their fan forum site Latics Speyk on a daily basis and even have considered joining it to try and help put them right on a few of their major misconceptions they have but I resist as I know it would only lead to abuse and I've been through that enough times on here and ww simply as a thanks for trying to help people better understand what is happening.

I've shared my views on the thread we have on Nuts and unless something drastic happens in the coming week then I think their future in the EFL is looking very bleak indeed.

Hope you pop back and post again soon

I must admit you were the first thought I had when I read our first league match was against you know who!



Stay safe.

Obviously impossible to compare players of such different eras and say if they could or couldn’t have done it. The game is completely different now, but so is the equipment, conditioning and training so perhaps if Hopkinson had been born 50 years later and enjoyed those benefits he could have been the best keeper in the world. No way of saying for sure.

Jaaskelainaen clearly the best keeper we’ve had in the past 30 years though, don’t agree with Ten Bon’s assessment that he was just a good shot stopper who read the game too slowly? How often did you see him get caught out on crosses or indecision leading to a goal? Maybe once a season? A handful of times over a long career with us basically. If we ever have a better keeper than Jussi we’ll be back in the big time.

T.R.O.Y. wrote:Obviously impossible to compare players of such different eras and say if they could or couldn’t have done it. The game is completely different now, but so is the equipment, conditioning and training so perhaps if Hopkinson had been born 50 years later and enjoyed those benefits he could have been the best keeper in the world. No way of saying for sure.

Unless you stretch him out on the rack he would still only be 5ft 8 inches and there simply are not keepers of that height anywhere near the top levels of football these days.

He could do all the modern day conditioning and training he'd like but he'd still only be 5 ft 8 - there's simply no getting away from that fact.

At 5ft 8 he wouldn't have even made it out of an Academy these days.

Yes his size was against him but still a great keeper, It is widely accepted that Gordon Banks was the best goalkeeper on the planet, he was 6ft tall (4" taller than Hoppy) so if the trend continues and all goalkeepers are 6'4" and above then are we saying Gordon Banks can't be regarded as the best keeper ever ?

Hopkinson was undoubtedly a great keeper in his day and Banks is regarded as one of the best ever but things move on. They probably would struggle in the modern game especially with crosses and the opposition putting pressure on them at corners etc.

Let's turn things around. Send these big buggers back to Hoppy's time, and see how they got on, big as they are.
They'd squeal like stuck pigs.

boltonbonce wrote:Let's turn things around. Send these big buggers back to Hoppy's time, and see how they got on, big as they are.
They'd squeal like stuck pigs.

 You might have a point there Boncey, imagine if today's keepers got barged into the net like Nat did to Harry Gregg. They'd be in hospital for a month and trying to press charges 

That's true bonce would the big lumaxes be able to get down to low shots, deal with mud and heavy balls, would be fun to watch. Not to mention playing on with a broken neck lol.

Norpig wrote:
 You might have a point there Boncey, imagine if today's keepers got barged into the net like Nat did to Harry Gregg. They'd be in hospital for a month and trying to press charges 

You can't even look at a keeper now. I was watching the Sevilla v Milan final the other night, and, good game that it was, the play acting/cheating was way over the top. Disgusting really. Soured the game for me.

wessy wrote:That's true bonce would the big lumaxes be able to get down to low shots, deal with mud and heavy balls, would be fun to watch. Not to mention playing on with a broken neck lol.

And a soggy ball, heavy with water. Most modern players would have to be carried off with concussion. And more than a few to get their hair set.

wessy wrote:Yes his size was against him but still a great keeper, It is widely accepted that Gordon Banks was the best goalkeeper on the planet, he was 6ft tall (4" taller than Hoppy) so if the trend continues and all goalkeepers are 6'4" and above then are we saying Gordon Banks can't be regarded as the best keeper ever ?

Yes.

'Ever' is infinite - and clearly we as a species develop physically over time - our average height has continued to grow over evolution and particularly in recent centuries.

You can only be considered the best ever up to that point in time - you can't say something is the best ever for all the time to come.

(Well you can physically say it but they are empty words as such).

You have been/still are an athlete, if you were still competing at your prime against competitors who are bigger, stronger and with longer length strides, you will inevitably do far worse over time than if you were competing with those with similar length strides to you, it's just a pure physical thing.

Maybe you might be mentally tougher than them and do well/win but when you eventually compete against someone who has the same mentality and a longer stride length - and you both run against each other flat out you will lose - it's as simple as that.

I'm not being deeming to Hopkinson, Banks or you as an athlete it's just down to pure physical ability of what your body is able do compared to someone taller and with greater reach and stride.

Presumably you mean demeaning* - Christ if you can’t be bothered reading your own posts why should we

I see your point on Hopkinson - and you are right about height it would be incredibly difficult. I suppose my point is more general about the obstacles faced when judging players of such different eras.

Never mind his height - the question is about our best keeper and Hoppy is our record appearance player with 578 games for BWFC and is also the last BWFC keeper to get a FA Cup winners medal, keeping a clean sheet against Manure.