Let's Discuss Our Goalkeeping Options

Debates have raged for months and months about whether Jussi Jaaskelainen is old and past it. After a few mistakes, a number of fans screamed for his starting spot to be taken away and for young Adam Bogdan to take his place as Bolton's first line of attack and last line of defense. After Jussi received a knock before the Chelsea game, Bogdan was given the starting nod against the big boys at the Reebok stadium. The critics got what they wanted and Bogdan's Bolton were demolished by Chelsea. Bogdan has had his chance against two of the perennial "top four" contenders now and has on both counts failed in every sense of the word.

Bolton's defense, as seems to be the norm this season, was to blame for some of the goals, but a pair were most definitely goals that Bogdan had to and should have done better to stop. Those that come to mind are Daniel Sturridge and Frank Lampard's second goals which Bogdan made a mess of. While Bogdan can do well for himself, as was the case against Aston Villa in the Carling Cup, he doesn't do himself any favors against the big boys with a 4-1 loss to Arsenal last season and the 5-1 Chelsea thumping. 

The young Hungarian's issues seem to come down to a combination of a lack of experience and a lack of judgement. He's played more than his fair share of games against top flight teams in Premier League and cup competition but he simply doesn't have the years of experience that Jussi has. Many of Bogdan's mistakes are judgement issues too and it's more than evident when a ball floats into the penalty area but is somewhere in the range of 5-7 yards from the goal mouth. The keeper's indecision leads him to get a late jump off the line or to read a play wrong as was evident in the Chelsea goals as well as in the Macclesfield Carling Cup match when he hesitated and was all too easily rounded by Emile Sinclair to put Bolton 1-0 down.

This would be a none-issue if Bolton still had Ali Al Habsi as their backup. However, that is no longer the case and what's done is done. We sold Ali and can't have him back. This begs the question: If Jussi goes after this season and Rob Lainton is below Bogdan in the pecking order, just how screwed are Bolton Wanderers?

Lainton has yet to see any meaningful time in net for Bolton outside of Reserves matches so those outside of the Bolton system don't know too much about what he has to offer. He sits below Bogdan in the pecking order so I'm not very optimistic but who knows, he might be a diamond in the Euxton rough. 

That leads us to ask what Bolton's options are. Do we spend money in the coming transfer windows on a proven yet underrated goalkeeper? Do we hope Bogdan comes good? Do we believe that Lainton will come out of nowhere to save us? The point is that no matter what our backup options currently are, Jussi Jaaskelainen will retire sooner rather than later and Bolton may be need quite a bit of luck and transfer funds.