What Has Happened to Jussi Jaaskelainen?

Credit here


Bolton Wanderers.

Second bottom of the Barclays Premier League.

Conceded the second most goals in the division.

Some transformation from last season... a 14th placed league finish... an FA Cup semi final defeat. Times were cosy under Owen Coyle.

Four points from their last five games signals relegation form, yet the quality is there in Coyle's squad for him to turn it around. The fans cling to the Holden hope, when will their USA international midfielder return?

But one player has been taken out of the limelight of late, a key player for seasons on end... Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Jussi has netted twice with clean sheets this season, in eighteen games, and with his contract up at the end of this season, you wonder whether now is the end of the line for the 36 year old Finn.

The goalkeeper signed for Wanderers in November 1997 from VPS Vaasa for a nominal fee of £100,000 and has been a true servant to the club where he has made 529 appearances.

Jaaskelainen has drifted out of the media headlines, with Adam Bogdan taking his place between the sticks after a thigh strain ruled him out for the Christmas period.

Bogdan conceded the most extra-ordinary goal at Goodison Park despite Wanderers picking up all three points.

Credit: here

Wanderers fans might be pleased with their number two goalkeeper Bogdan being given a chance but at the end of the season, errors; including the goal conceded at Goodison Park against Tim Howard, might well be crucial in sending Wanderers down.

It really is that close. Small margins.

As we were reminded at the Emirates at the weekend, class is permanent, and surely it's for the good of Bolton Wanderers that Jussi Jaaskelainen is restored to the line-up as soon as possible.

Unless there's a problem.

One theory, purely my own, is that the big Finn might well have an automatic clause in his contract if he plays so many games. Sitting on 18 games for the season, surely it's not ironic that he's sitting on the bench when Bolton are losing, when one more appearance would have seen him played half of the league season.

The other possibility is that the clause is automatically hit at 20 games, and that Coyle is waiting until the last game of the season to give Jaaskelainen a send off in their final game, away at Stoke, ironically where Wigan stayed up on the final day of the 2010/11 season.

I couldn't see that happening with the situation at the bottom of the Premier League tighter than a pair of kids trousers on a competitor for World's strongest man.

Jaaskelainen's form could be singled out as one of the reasons why Bolton have avoided relegation battles in previous seasons.

Credit: here

It's a big call to give a younger goalkeeper the number one spot half way through the season, like Coyle appears to have done, and while Bolton fans might single his form out as a positive, it seems his presence in the penalty area isn't quite that of Jussi. It's quite simply a big loss. A 6'3'' loss.

And the goalkeeping problem hasn't just shown at Bolton this season, it's shown at Stoke too, where consistency has been thrown out of the window at the Britannia. It might not be directly down to Tony Pulis' inability to pick a number one keeper between Begovic and Sorensen, but chopping and changing the goalkeeper doesn't help even the most talented of defenses in front of him.

I'm sure I won't stand alone in hoping that the English Premier League gets to see Jussi Jaaskelainen at least one last time, he's certainly denied my team victory on numerous occasions, and I am one for giving youngsters a chance, but in desperate times, maybe experience and Premier League quality should shine through. It might just save Bolton Wanderers, and Owen Coyle.

Otherwise it's a bit climb back from the Championship.