It would appear that Norwich City are making a significant outlay to get Schalke goalkeeper, Ralf Fahrmann, on-loan at Norwich for the 2019-20 season.
Various reports across the internet, including this one, are suggesting that the Canaries will be paying a €3m loan fee and that City will cover all the player’s wages.
Ralf Fährmann's one season loan to Norwich City will be made official tomorrow. Schalke will get a €3m loan fee and 100% of Fährmann's wages will be covered by Norwich. [@hassanscorner] #S04 pic.twitter.com/Efg91K4ajI
— Schalke Daily (@S04Daily) July 4, 2019
That, assuming these reports are correct, is a big outlay. Having said that though, a goalkeeper is a very specialist and important position in the team. You may remember former Norwich manager, Peter Grant’s quote that “a good goalkeeper can get a team 15 points in a season”.
I’m not sure if that’s true or not but it has stuck with me and it wouldn’t surprise me either.
There’s no doubt that all the best football teams have a good goalkeeper and you only have to look at Liverpool as an example of that. A brilliant team going forward for a few years but widely acknowledged as being weak at the back with a dodgy keeper until the signings of Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson Becker. He cost the Reds a reported £60m fee but showed on numerous occasions that he was worth that fee – if ever a player can be worth that much money at all.
If the reports coming out of Germany are true, then this will be a significant outlay for the Canaries and it sounds as though there is no automatic option to buy him at the end of the season either.
Having spent that much money, is Fahrmann really just going to warm the bench? He could do that at Schalke.
It looks to me as though Fahrmann is going to be a serious threat to Tim Krul’s position as the club’s number one. Competition for places is massively important in a football squad because it avoids complacency and makes sure that players need to be on top form to play in the team.
Tim Krul is going to have to be on top form if he wants to be City’s first choice Keeper in the Premier League.
OTBC