The Tykes Go Gaga Over Their New Keeper: Gabriel Slonina at Barnsley (olf Chelsea)

He can also move on a free in 2 years right after he turns 24. Plenty of goalkeepers have built a good career, starting, without a ton of first-team experience at that age.

 

Possible loan move to Parma:

Exclusive #CFC

🔵 Chelsea and Parma are in talks over a deal for Gabriel Slonina
🔵 Parma managed by ex-Arsenal assistant Carlos Cuesta
🔵 Parma want to take 22yo on initial loan with an option to buyhttps://t.co/B6ZaJIn2zv

— Charlie Gordon (@CharlieGordonSJ) June 29, 2026

 

I guess maybe they just want to get an extended look at him.

Hard to imagine they would bring him in to start.

 

I would be shocked if Slonina earns a starting spot at a mid table Serie A side after a failed loan at Barnsley in the English 3rd tier and a, lets says, unconvincing loan to Eupen in the Jupilier League.

Nothing of the last 3 years with Slonina would leave me to believe he is doing that.

 

I suppose the important test would be him simply competing for a role. He was like 4th or 5th keeper at Chelsea so if he's no.2 at Parma, that's a major step up which would entail starting in cup matches.

 

If it was a permanent deal maybe it would look more optimistic

 

Parma just completed the signing of Juventus youngster Giovanni Daffara for 6m. Daffara was on loan with Serie B side Avellino last year and had some Juventini wanting to be the backup this year. As others pointed out, I think the plan is to sell Suzuki. The role for starter would be open, but after the last 3 years that Gaga had, I wouldn't bank on him winning that spot.

 

Uhm, dunno where you get your numbers from but when Bylow was goalie at Feyenoord he earned about 2.9 million a year:

Justin Bijlow's salary: How much does the goalkeeper of... Justin Bijlow's salary at Feyenoord in numbers With Bijlow's current contract, the goalie earns a weekly salary of €56,538, making him the highest-earning player...

PSV and Ajax pay the same or more.

 

^ That's due to Champions League money right? Seems like a ton for a goalie in the Dutch league?

 

Afaik know Feyenoord budgets as if they're not in the CL...to be safe.
Anyway ...in Dutch a "ton" means in money 100,000..... so, no it's not like a ton for a goalie

 

I got my numbers from capology.com and since Bijlow left Feyenoord in January, he didn't appear in their salary list. If he had, I wouldn't have included him for the situation as of late June

As for the other Big 3 GKs, according to them, PSV's highest-paid GK is Matej Kovar on €980k, Ajax's Maarten Paes is on €575k and Liverpool loanee Jaros was paid at least half of €450k, while Timon Wellenreuther earned €780k. Salarysport and salaryleaks are similar.

All these figures are base salaries but even with bonuses, none of those players are going to earn anything like 2m a year in euros, never mind pounds.

That is likely to change if Ajax sign Ter Stegen on loan, but over the last few seasons Dutch teams have not paid their GKs EPL-type salaries. Biklow looks to have been a real outlier

 

They are also well established keepers.

Not failed CFC loan army youngster coming off a failed loan at Barnsley and pretty much a failed loan ay Eupen.

Nobody is shelling out very top of the league wages for a player with that resume.

 

True about Gaga's resume but the more fundamental issue is that the Eredivisie's business model, like the Jupiler and the Liga Sagres, is to sign young players with real potential, develop them and sell them on to the Top 5 for a profit. That profit is then reinvested in new players, more and better scouting, analysis, etc.

Since GKs, even at their peak, don't often sell for the really big money, there's a tendency to sell them and defenders off earlier to finance holding on to or extending the contracts of the strikers, wingers and midfielders who command the 30-40 million transfer fees and score/create the goals that win titles and get them into the CL with its TV revenues.

A good Championship-level GK with a quality midfield and attack in front of him is good enough for that, the likes of PSV, Ajax, Anderlecht, Porto, etc. don't spend €2m a season on a GK's wages unless he's already top-drawer (Trubin at Benfica) or their own academy product (Costa at Porto). Gaga ticks none of those boxes.

 

Rumors now that he may be going to Strasbourg

 

He's training with Strasbourg. But they are Blueco B.

 

The 5 goals scored against Gaga Slonina in the 2nd half today.

First 2 he couldn’t do much about, Third makes a decent save first shot. 4th and 5th goal especially were BAD #USMNT #CFC pic.twitter.com/llNW4o5FUE

— starsnstripesfc 🇺🇸 (@starsnstripesfc) July 20, 2026

 

4th one wasn't an error. May have actually been a deflection. The last one was horrible.

 

Yeah, last one was the only really bad one. The first was a phenomenal header into the upper far corner. Unsaveable. The second was a pen. The third he made a pretty good save, but looked pretty slow to get up to cover the follow-up shot. The fourth was a great shot (with maybe a deflection). The fifth, however, was just...WTF? His reaction time was so slow--he could see the play developing, and had a clear view of the shot, and seemed to react after the ball had already gone through him. Oof.

 

Tough game to be the goalie. That said, he does not look very mobile or nimble. Jumps and dives except the penalty looked a little heavy or short of spring. Moreover, some keepers show amazing ability to move their arms and adjust their bodies during a dive. His dives looked like straight line commitments. Maybe a bit harsh during preseason especially.

 

Too bad the clip didn't show any saves or how he did on crosses into his area... or did he not have any?

but yeah, the fifth was a howler just 5 minutes after the 4th goal. His defenders sure aren't helping him with their positioning, either

 

The last one is really bad. OTOH it looks like the entire Strasbourg defence had given up by then and by "given up" I mean completely. I doubt Emi Martinez or Simon would had done much better with that shambles in front of him

In addition, Sporting are 2 weeks ahead of Strasbourg in their pre-season - their season starts on the 8th while Strasbourg's starts on the 21st - and had 7 players at the World Cup, all but one of them starters. Some of them are back in training already. Gaga only arrived at Strasbourg ahead last week (Transfermarkt still lists him as a Chelsea player and don't have any rumours for him either).

It's a little early to draw conclusions but yes, he could have done with a better start.

 

For context, Gaga Slonina has just gone 22 and has made 87 professional starts so far across three different leagues; MLS, the Jupiler and England's D3.

Compare that with other MNT-level US GKs had done at the same age:

Chris Brady: 106 MLS starts.
Matt Freese: 22 MLS and USL starts
Matt Turner: 7 USL starts.
Brad Guzan: 37 MLS starts.
Tim Howard: 19 MLS.starts
Brad Friedel: just finished college and failed a trial at Celtic.
Kasey Keller: just finished college
​

On that score, he compares reasonably well but there's no question that a) he's out of the MNT frame for the time being and b) has fallen a long way behind his former understudy, Brady, because there's no way on earth that Eupen, never mind Barnsley, are better than MLS.

 

Bigger issue is this game just continues a long string of not great performances.

He needs to show something here at some point...

No real reason to think anything is going to turn around.