1 | James Trafford - 2025/26

Exeter Blue I am here said:
Why? He was clearly sold a particular vision and within a few weeks of his arrival the club moved the goalposts. He’s far too good to be a no.2 and, if I was him, I’d be royally pissed off too
Click to expand...
I think both statements can be true.

I expect the original plan was for him to be number 2 to Eddie for a season, do the cup games and become number 1 next season. The club was happy. He was happy. Unfortunately, Eddie was not. It put the club in a difficult position. Going into the season with a largely unproven (still the case) Trafford as number 1, would have been a huge risk. I didn’t want the club to take that risk and said as much at the time. The club clearly didn’t want to take the risk either and the plan they had in mind, only a few weeks earlier, had to be torn up. Things change, shit happens.

It’s tough luck for Trafford but it’s hardly the end of the world for him either. He can be understandably frustrated with the situation but as Kippax said, he hasn’t actually achieved anything of any real note in the game and should probably just get on with trying to change that, rather than digging out the club in interviews.
 
Nickyweaver01 said:
it’s a team game James
Click to expand...

Not for a goalkeeper it isn't. He's possibly the best English goalkeeper at the moment, but not getting enough opportunities to prove it in a World Cup year compared to Pickford, Pope, Henderson, etc.
All he can do at City is wait for domestic cup games and hope that Tuchel is watching / getting positive reports.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
Why? He was clearly sold a particular vision and within a few weeks of his arrival the club moved the goalposts. He’s far too good to be a no.2 and, if I was him, I’d be royally pissed off too
[/

Reminds me a bit of when Sven rotated Joe Hart , Kasper Schmeical and Isaakson , decided on Joe Hart , the other two left but then within 6 months Mark Hughes came in and bought Shay Given and Hart finished up going to Birmingham for 2 seasons
Click to expand...
 
The keeper problem is a good one, but how can you have Donnarumma and not play him?
Trafford hasn't played top-flight football until this season and we all know Donnarumma's records

The right choice by Pep and the club and Trafford knows his time will come but for now he's learning from the best
 
I’d love to know why some fans think he is some sort of world beater he got dropped by Burnley in his only premier league season and when he started the first few games for us this season he was an absolute bomb scare. The bigger issue here is that if any of the hierarchy told him he would be no 1 then we have some crazy decision makers in charge because nothing in his career suggests he’s ready to be number 1 at a top club.
 
Lavinda Past said:
Not for a goalkeeper it isn't. He's possibly the best English goalkeeper at the moment, but not getting enough opportunities to prove it in a World Cup year compared to Pickford, Pope, Henderson, etc.
All he can do at City is wait for domestic cup games and hope that Tuchel is watching / getting positive reports.
Click to expand...
Do you think he'll have learnt more training with Donnarumma for a year vs being in net for that year at lets say Newcastle, for example?

The answer is probably yes, of course, but at the same time hes trained daily with arguably the best keeper in the world, not many keepers or players can have that on their CV

Tuchel was at the training ground the other week, I wonder whether part of that was to watch him in training

Personally, I dont think England have a decent keeper in the ranks, and Trafford is probably already better than Pickford, Pope and Henderson

A year at Newcastle may not have seen him become number 1 anyway, so he should now have his eyes on the Euros

It's shit for him, but shit happens
 
Ryan.98. said:
I’d love to know why some fans think he is some sort of world beater he got dropped by Burnley in his only premier league season and when he started the first few games for us this season he was an absolute bomb scare. The bigger issue here is that if any of the hierarchy told him he would be no 1 then we have some crazy decision makers in charge because nothing in his career suggests he’s ready to be number 1 at a top club.
Click to expand...
He’s ready and will be a very good number 1 at a top 6ish club next season. Best English keeper already.
 
Top-class keeper wants to be number one but his chances are limited by the world-class keeper in front of him. This is the dilemma of playing for one of the world's best teams.
I don't think James Trafford has said anything wrong there, but he has shown, clearly, that he is ambitious for more. Unfortunately, he won't get it unless Donnarumma gets injured, so he will have a choice to make.
Personally, I would have preferred JT as number one, but I know that is heart over head.
 
blueparrot said:
Whatever, he’s very good, for some weird reason you want to try and convince yourself he isn’t. He’ll go to a good team and have a great career.
Click to expand...
You are guessing that he’s very good he has never done it at the top level.
 
chris85mcfc said:
Do you think he'll have learnt more training with Donnarumma for a year vs being in net for that year at lets say Newcastle, for example?

The answer is probably yes, of course, but at the same time hes trained daily with arguably the best keeper in the world, not many keepers or players can have that on their CV

Tuchel was at the training ground the other week, I wonder whether part of that was to watch him in training

Personally, I dont think England have a decent keeper in the ranks, and Trafford is probably already better than Pickford, Pope and Henderson

A year at Newcastle may not have seen him become number 1 anyway, so he should now have his eyes on the Euros

It's shit for him, but shit happens
Click to expand...

While I'm glad that we signed Donnarumma (he is the best after all!), the simple fact is that, having already signed Trafford as likely number 1, it will always be thought that we only signed Donnarumma to stop anyone else getting him.
 
Ryan.98. said:
You are guessing that he’s very good he has never done it at the top level.
Click to expand...
This. He couldn't even go 2 games trying to convince Pep he could be a legitimate no 1. It would have been a circus committing a whole year to an unproven young GK. He doesnt lack self confidence anyway.
 
I think at a minimum we give Trafford 2 seasons to show he can be #1.

We don't seem to get rid of players after just 1 season.. even Kalvin got a 2nd season or half of it to impress again.
 
Lavinda Past said:
While I'm glad that we signed Donnarumma (he is the best after all!), the simple fact is that, having already signed Trafford as likely number 1, it will always be thought that we only signed Donnarumma to stop anyone else getting him.
Click to expand...
I am ok with that to be honest , just add it to all the other stuff that's thrown at City its like water off a ducks back now .
 
Don't see anything wrong with what he said. I don't want players happy to be sat on the bench collecting a paycheck. Don't feel the club did anything wrong to him, we are one of the top clubs in the world, great players are going to be signed in your position whoever you are. He's performed with credit when he's had a chance in the main, apart from a couple errors at the start of the season. If he wants to go and play somewhere else I'm sure we'll turn a profit on him and I'll wish him well.
 
Lavinda Past said:
While I'm glad that we signed Donnarumma (he is the best after all!), the simple fact is that, having already signed Trafford as likely number 1, it will always be thought that we only signed Donnarumma to stop anyone else getting him.
Click to expand...
With the benefit of hindsight, i dread to think of where we would be this season with Trafford as number one

That's no disrespect to him, but im not sure how he would have coped with the defensive injuries weve had this season, and it wouldn't have been fair on him to have gone through that
 
Goater101 said:
Well he isn’t better than Donnarumma so he can leave? Pretty simple. It won’t go down well with Pep so cya later kid
Click to expand...
Pep is not some god nor he has control of someone else’s destiny.
If pep has problems with player showing ambition and wanting to play then it’s Pep’s problem not players .
Dont think players aren’t here to appease Pep especially when they know playing time would be limited. World is big and filled with opportunities
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top