1 | James Trafford - 2025/26

Could be argued he saved our season with his triple save , would have made a difference for Newcastle had he signed for them and i expect he may still do so.
Donnarumma has done a good job too but Trafford has now developed, confirmed his status as a regular starter for a top premier side.
 
Johnny Mars Bar said:
This isn't a slight on Donnarumma as such but if I were Pep/Viana & Co I'd bite the bullet and sell Donna in the summer if it meant keeping Trafford.

Nowhere near the Bravo situation but I think we've seen enough now to say that Trafford just suits the team better and he's also a more long term prospect.

There's no way Donna would be happy with being number 2 so if we could sell him to an Italian club and shake hands I'd take it.
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Bayern need a replacement for Neuer soon too don't they?
 
Petethemancinleeds said:
Could be argued he saved our season with his triple save , would have made a difference for Newcastle had he signed for them and i expect he may still do so.
Donnarumma has done a good job too but Trafford has now developed, confirmed his status as a regular starter for a top premier side.
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Reminded me a bit of early days Hart.

Lets hope it turns out the way it did then too that Hart became our #1.
 
1961_vintage said:
I think Trafford is better suited to the English domestic game. I hope we can convince him to stay.
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I've been saying that since:

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Somehow I got myself a lot of hate for it, but always thought we pass our way out of trouble better with him than with Donna.

And that passing our way out of trouble is a massive feature out of all our Pep teams. It's been lacking this season.
 
jamielowndes said:
I see "Donnarumma is only a shot stopper" has become the new "Ederson is only a passer" very quickly.

Trafford played well with what he needed to do and I'm not saying any of this as a criticism of him because he's been much better in the cup than he was at the start of the season.

But people are kind of being prisoners of the moment every time Trafford wins a game to act like Donnarumma has been some black hole for us at the back all season. Trafford is a better passer, but you'd swear Gigi was just tripping over his feet and booting it for a corner every time based on here.
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Trafford was very good at the start of the season. He made a couple of mistakes but his overall play was great. He made a lot of saves.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I've been saying that since:

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Somehow I got myself a lot of hate for it, but always thought we pass our way out of trouble better with him than with Donna.

And that passing our way out of trouble is a massive feature out of all our Pep teams. It's been lacking this season.
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He's made some incredible saves this season, that has kept us in the hunt, that cannot be denied.
 
hcblue95 said:
Trafford was very good at the start of the season. He made a couple of mistakes but his overall play was great. He made a lot of saves.
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He honestly wasn't. Looked hurried every time he had the ball at his feet and on more than one occasion messed up his pass, whether he passed to players who were marked in the corner and put them under needless pressure (did it at least twice against Brighton) or just sent the ball out.

He also almost got himself sent off with a Sunday League level rush on a Spurs player on a ball he didn't even really need to come out for. And we all know the goal he practically got an assist on.

His actual shot stopping was good against Brighton though, I agree.

Those kind of things are less than ideal, but players are going to make mistakes. It's the first time he's been a starter at an elite team and nobody's perfect. It's clearly not who he is consistently as he's played well in the cup games since. He was also never meant to be the out and out starter this year before Ederson officially wanted out.

But I think a lot of people are romanticising his performances in the cup because we're doing the same thing every other club does when an English player under 25 plays well. If he was called James Bernabeu, people aren't clamouring over themselves to minimise every other part of Donnarummas game to try and sell us all on Trafford.
 
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Ban-jani said:
No slight on Donnarumma but based on his agents comments, he’s got one eye on returning to Italy I fear. Whereas Trafford would stay at City for the rest of his career. I also think whilst Donnarumma is probably a better shot stopper, Trafford is better on crosses and a more rounded keeper. His kicking was better on Sunday too.

If it’s a toss up between keeping one of them, I’d keep Trafford. He’s a blue through and through and going to be England’s number 1.
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That’s exactly what I think. Long term Trafford will end up being one of the best keepers in the league, he loves the club and he’s an academy player. It would be so daft if we sold him.
 
chiswick blue said:
as mentioned earlier a 2 year loan to another good PL club would be good for him and us. Do not want to lose him permanently. He would still have 2 years on his contract and therefore we have options
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I don’t get that argument at all. After years of loan moves, to then finally be bought back, why would he be happy with even more uncertainty and more loan moves?

We’d basically be using him and saying you might be our keeper in 3 years - who on earth would accept that.

Who’s to say we don’t buy another keeper in that time as well. We either play him or sell him.
 
As good as Donnarumma is, I wouldn’t lose too much sleep if he was to leave this summer. James Trafford is a better all round keeper, controls his area and his distribution is much better too! His shot stopping isn’t too shabby either haha. Will be England number 1 soon enough for many many years to come and hopefully ours too!
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
I don’t get that argument at all. After years of loan moves, to then finally be bought back, why would he be happy with even more uncertainty and more loan moves?

We’d basically be using him and saying you might be our keeper in 3 years - who on earth would accept that.

Who’s to say we don’t buy another keeper in that time as well. We either play him or sell him.
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100% agree. There's no way he's hanging around in the hope that we give him the job somewhere down the line.

He realistically came here with the expectation that Ederson was out the next season and the job was his. Donnarumma suddenly becomes available and now it's a new season and he's behind a 26 year old UCL/EUROs winner with a brand new contract.

I'd appreciate him staying to be backup but it's completely unrealistic to assume he would.
 
mcfc4life1995 said:
As good as Donnarumma is, I wouldn’t lose too much sleep if he was to leave this summer. James Trafford is a better all round keeper, controls his area and his distribution is much better too! His shot stopping isn’t too shabby either haha. Will be England number 1 soon enough for many many years to come and hopefully ours too!
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Can see Donna leaving at the end of the season, saw somewhere he wasn’t settled over here?
 
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