The two biggest clubs in English football will go to battle with the objective of signing a player who would fill a current, or future troubling position of goalkeeper. This man is Maarten Stekelenburg. The 28-year-old would, at Manchester United, be able to replace Edwin Van der Sar at the end of the current 2010/11 season, as it is widely thought that the veteran will retire at the age of 40 years. Sir Alex Ferguson has been delighted with his current goalkeeper, and even admitted that he should have signed Van der Sar earlier in his career. There is no suprise then, that the Scot will look for a similar replacement.
Both Stekelenburg and Van der Sar began their career at Ajax - the club where Stekelenburg currently plays - with around 165 appearances. During the 2006 World Cup, Stekelenburg was the understudy to Dutch number one, Van der Sar. However in the most recent of World Cup's, Stekelenburg was the number one goalkeeper, and helped them get to the final - conceding only five goals in the competition, however he ended up on the losing side as they lost to Spain.
They also both have a large frame - with Van der Sar standing at 6 foot 6 inches, while Stekelenburg stads at 6 foot five and a half.A reliable goalkeeper is also just what Arsenal need at the moment. Almunia and Fabianski don't exactly ooze confidence and the fans support for them is slightly lacking, as they begged their team manager to buy a new goalkeeper through the summer. Unfortunately for the fans, and fortunately for the goalkeepers, their pleas fell on deaf ears, as Wenger seems to trust his blundering goalkeepers.
With a whole season for the two keepers to make bad mistakes, Wenger will most probably be looking for a new goalkeeper toa ppease his fans, and Stekelenburg is said to be on top of the Frenchmans list.
The Ajax coach Martin Jol dmitted that there was interest from the clubs in his goalkeeper, but that it was "not strange" for United and Arsenal to want to buy his number one.
