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Friedel Opts for 2-Year Spurs Deal Over Villa / WBA

After it seemed that Brad Friedel’s former club Liverpool were set to win the race for his signature, the Reds apparently cooled their interest in the 40-year-old, allowing Tottenham Hotspur to sign the veteran keeper on a two-year contract.The American will now vie for a place in the Spurs starting XI, attempting to dethrone Hilarious Gomes of his number one shirt in the process. The length of the contract proved to be crucial to the deal, with Villa, rightly so in my opinion, only willing to offer a one-year contract.

Brad has been a great servant in his short time at the club and should gain a great reception on his return but the lure of the possibility of first team football at a top 6 club has spoken after a poor final season results wise at Villa. Personally, I was one of those who thought he had another year in him as I saw little to no decline in form from last year but a 2-year-deal was a risk worth avoiding for the board.

Some interesting stats from Opta show that despite appearing far more reliable than Gomes, Friedel’s goalkeeping stats were worse than his new teammates, barring the obvious 2-5 in terms of errors in Friedel’s favour. The Brazilian unsurprisingly conceded fewer goals 39 v 59 but more surprisingly made more saves per game 3.7 v 2.8, saved a higher percentage of shots 74% v 64%, and had an equal catch success rate of 96%, despite his calamitous image.

Villa have been linked to a large list of potential replacement’s including fans choices Shay Given and Ben Foster, as well as the likes of Ali Al-Habsi, Paul Robinson and Allan McGregor.

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