Norwich City have announced they have completed the signing of Angus Gunn from Saints, sadly things didn't work out for the goalkeeper at St Mary's but good luck to him as he returns to Carrow Road.

There were big hopes for Angus Gunn when he joined Saints in the summer of 2018 for a fee believed to be in the region of £10 million, although some of that may have been appearance related.

He started his career at St Mary's on the bench with Alex McCarthy as first choice, but forced his way into the first team for the trip to Stamford Bridge on 2nd January and starred in a 0-0 draw.

He was pretty much the first choice from then on in that season and started 2019/20 season as first choice.

Initially he carried on where he had left off and seemed to be potentially the first choice for a few years to come.

But then came that game against Leicester City, in truth Gunn could not be blamed for any of the City goals, the defence in front of him was a shambles and he could only watch as they collapsed and left him exposed time and time again.

Whether his confidence was shot after that is unclear, but certainly Ralph Hasenhuttl felt that experience was needed and 22 games in the Premier League was not experience and it needed an older head than the then 23 year old Gunn had.

He returned for FA Cup matches later in the season and looked like his confidence was restored, but this would be his last action in a Saints shirt and he would spend the season just gone on loan.

Personally I think there is a good goalkeeper in there somewhere and I truly hope Angus Gunn has a successful career going forward, it was not his fault that he took his place in the Saints goal at the time when we had just about the worst defence in our Premier league history in front of him, as a young keeper he had the right to expect leadership in front of him and he had little, if the experienced defenders in front of him were not doing there job it was unfair to criticise.

So Gunn is gone after 22 Premier League games plus another 8 in the Cup, he had his fair share of decent performances and never really let Saints down, he would perhaps leave thinking he never got a fair crack of the whip.

I also think that the current financial climate and Saints needing to get high earners off the books meant we had to cut our losses and run.

Ideally we would have sold one of Fraser Forster and Alex McCarthy and nurtured Gunn, but we could not afford to keep all three on the books, Forster will go nowhere due to the high wages he earns, McCarthy is just not good enough as a number 1 keeper and therefore attracted no Premier league attention or at least none that would match his wages as a number 2 elsewhere.

That means that the only saleable asset in the goalkeeping department is Angus Gunn and we had to bite the bullet and take the money and put if reports are to be believed £5 million in our transfer kitty for next season.

Photo: Action Images

sandywelsh added 13:32 - Jun 23 I would have sooner go rid of Alex McCarthy, but as you said he is not good enough as a number 1 keeper and therefore attracted no Premier league intrest. We seem to have a lot of average players on high wages thanks to Les Reed.
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highfield49 added 14:16 - Jun 23 Unless there have been recent changes I think McCarthy and Forster are out of contract next summer? Hopefully the transfer of Gunn indicates the intention to bring in someone new and experienced rather than another punt on "one for the future". It's been a long time since we had someone reliable between the posts and we certainly haven't got anyone at present.
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WestSussexSaint added 14:51 - Jun 23 Out of the 3 keepers Gunn was probably the most sellable (Forster on big wages; McCarthy not young/good enough). I’m sure Gunn has the talent and quite possibly Saints was the right move but just at the wrong time. At least that is £10m in the kitty to bolster the squad .
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geezershoong1 added 15:32 - Jun 23 £10m - what will that be spent on, a season long loan deal for the superstar Billy Gilmour..?
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ElijahK added 17:25 - Jun 23 I mean us selling him is both good and bad, as he does look like he’s got potential and with Forster on goal it’s not like we’ve got the greatest keeper playing, but at the same time he hasn’t really shown it too often Still though, wish him all the best
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saintmark1976 added 08:44 - Jun 24 He paid the price for being between the sticks during the most infamous match in the club’s history. If Ralph had managed the first 9-0 defeat correctly after Bertrand was sent off by playing two bank of four with one up front we could have avoided an humiliation. To add insult to injury he once again didn’t learn from his mistakes and did the same thing at Man Utd resulting in the same score line. Gunn was a better long term prospect than either McCarthy or Forster as I’m certain he will prove at Norwich. I wish him well.

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