Maarten Stekelenburg Sent To Fulham (Or Not: Updates)

Not a small update:

Roma can reportedly nix the whole Maarten deal has reportedly nixed the whole deal if they do not pick up Viviano or another keeper. because they could not get a replacement.

Would somebody, for the love of all that is holy, just put Julio Sergio back in net and be done with it.

***

Big Dutch keeper going to Fulham after finding himself on the bench in Serie A. Never happened before.

Never.

Ever.

Maarten's now a Fulham player (a favored destination of Roma's unloved in the Prem - Montella and Okakachukamuthafucka already having spent some time there not scoring goals), reportedly on loan, now rumored to be a 6m sale (hence the Viviano rumors), which means the goalkeeping controversy in Rome is no longer much of a controversy. Until Bogdan Lobont gets his chance and lays down feline moves which would have Anne Hathaway blushing.

Truth told, his little interview in the last week was probably his death knell. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't ideal, and for someone who's already seen as an outsider on the club, perhaps even someone causing some internal rifts, it's better for all parties that he goes somewhere he's loved. Much like hanging onto a relationship for the sake of the children (Svedkauskas?), you're not doing anyone any favors.

The only reason this is a big deal in any fashion is when he was brought in, he was heralded as some sort of pillar for this new Roma. A player they could toss between the sticks for some years and move on to other needs. The Maarten Stekelenburg in practice is hardly the one expected in theory, and he's far from a great keeper. He assumes a lot of space, but he is nowhere near as mobile as some would desire of their keeper. There are better options out there - Zeman decided there was one in-house - especially when he's so unhappy. Outside of the idea that he was a box check-off for the coming years, this isn't much of a big deal, and could be addition by subtraction.

But Mauro Goicoechea does not appear to be someone to whom you want to hand the reins for the next decade or so, which means the summer should see another pair of gloves brought in.

Get to work, Walter.

And...earlier in the week, it was reported that one of the problems with Zeman was his reluctance to play Maarten and that in order to stay on, Baldini (and to a degree, Sabatini) had mandated that Maarten be reinserted to the starting eleven.

Yeah. Don't believe everything you read.

In unrelated news, I'm a unicorn.

Updates, etc, to follow.

Free Lobont.