Evs

[Fires Of Fulham]

I hope that we got a ton of money for Edwin van der Sar from Manchester United because if we didn't we really are screwed for next season.

Besides losing a world class goal keeper hurting the side for obvious reasons, what is going to hurt the team the most is trying to replace him. Instead of having a true Premiership starting goalie under contract until the end of next season, we're going to need to use a lot of the transfer fee to try to lure someone else's goalie now. And, if Arsenal don't decide to stick with Jens Lehmann pretty much the first choice left in the world (whoever that is) is gone.

I don't know if the remaining funds we got for him will be enough to both replace him and strengthen the side in other areas (and keep the players we have).

Perhaps I'm just being overdramatic but if anyone can see a bright side to this, I'd really like to know.

[ChicagoTom]

I hope that we got a ton of money for Edwin van der Sar from Manchester United because if we didn't we really are screwed for next season.

Besides losing a world class goal keeper hurting the side for obvious reasons, what is going to hurt the team the most is trying to replace him. Instead of having a true Premiership starting goalie under contract until the end of next season, we're going to need to use a lot of the transfer fee to try to lure someone else's goalie now. And, if Arsenal don't decide to stick with Jens Lehmann pretty much the first choice left in the world (whoever that is) is gone.

I don't know if the remaining funds we got for him will be enough to both replace him and strengthen the side in other areas (and keep the players we have).

Perhaps I'm just being overdramatic but if anyone can see a bright side to this, I'd really like to know.
I am not here to tell you there is a good aspect of this move, but one thing for certain that is a fact is that we did sign a keeper in January to come to the Cottage this summer. His name is Jaroslav Drobny and he played for Panionios. He is 25 years old and he is good friends with fellow Czech countryman Chelsea keeper Petr Cech. He was a permanent in the Panionios squad and played in the UEFA Cup the last two seasons. FulhamUSA.com is in the process of writing something up about Drobny to help Fulham supporters get to know him.

I do hope we got a nice chunk of change from Manchester United for Edwin. He was possibly the best keeper in the Premiership and we will miss him an awful lot. It will be interesting to see if Fulham go for another keeper or not. We also signed 18-year old keeper Ricardo Baptista in January who has played with the Reserves in the second half of the season.

[Stephen1164]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4611715.stm

[American Mike]

I am not surprised one bit by this move. It was on the cards since January...

1) He's 34
2) He only signed a one year extension to begin with
3) Man U wanted him in January
4) Edwin did us a favor by signing a new contract extension so we can get a fee
5) We released huge wages
6) If we received 3 mill + for him then its good business (I think the Guardian is full of sh!t)

Although I am also gutted to see him go, we can look at this in a positive way. You never know what is going to happen and I have faith in Cookie.

[Fires Of Fulham]

I am not surprised one bit by this move. It was on the cards since January...

1) He's 34
2) He only signed a one year extension to begin with
3) Man U wanted him in January

Although I am also gutted to see him go, we can look at this in a positive way. You never know what is going to happen and I have faith in Cookie.

34 means he's probably got about 3-4 productive years left as a goalie who last a lot longer than other positions.

I know Man U wanted him a vice-versa so it's not surprising and for him to have completed the contract would have just been postpoining the inevitable. I'm going to take a wait and see attitude about the goalie situation but I never like to give up a sure thing.