Webber sets sights on NI’S No.1 shirt after penning Palace deal
OLLIE Webber has revealed that establishing himself as Northern Ireland’s first choice goalkeeper is a long-term ambition after putting pen to paper on a new deal at Crystal Palace.
The Portsmouth-born shot-stopper, who turned 20 last month, signed a contract extension on Wednesday, tying him to the Selhurst Park outfit for at least another season.
Webber spent his schoolboy days in Newtownards after moving here with his mother Emma and brother Samuel, coming through the ranks at Glentoran under academy coach David Lowry before signing apprenticeship forms with the London club in 2016.
And since then, the youngster’s star has been on the rise.
Naturally, with his path to the starting line-up barred by a few more experienced heads, including Wales international Wayne Hennessey and Roy Hodgson’s current preferred choice, Spanish stopper Vicente Guaita, Webber’s first target is making the grade with his current employers.
But after that, he hopes to catch the eye of new Northern Ireland chief Ian Baraclough.
“In five years’ time, I want to be a No.1 goalkeeper playing in the Premier League, and established as the No.1 for Northern Ireland,” Webber told the Belfast Telegraph, fresh from a morning training session.
After spending the season with the Under-23s, a campaign curtailed by the pandemic, the deal is another vote of confidence for Webber, with the likes of his manager Shaun Derry, academy director Gary Issott, club legends Mark Bright and Dougie Freedman, and of course
Hodgson — who watches all the U23 home games — signing off on the deal.
“Personally, (last season) was one of the best seasons I’ve had, it was just a shame it was cut short,” said Webber. “But yes, I think the deal is a reward for how I was performing.”
These are tough times for all industries across the globe, and professional football will not escape the brutal reality of boardroom cutbacks as the full impact of the pandemic becomes clear.
For players that are released, it compounds the difficulty of finding a new club in a depressed market — but it also means opportunity knocks for young prospects as club owners look to promote from within.
“It feels good to get the deal sorted,” added Webber, who has represented Northern Ireland at under-age level from the Under-15s to the Under-19s. “It took a while with the whole corona situation, but now it’s all sorted it’s a relief, it’s a weight off my shoulders.
“It’s a stressful time for players getting released. It might be that bit harder to find clubs, but if you are signed to a club, they might not have money to spend, so they might have to rely on youth which could give players like me a bit more opportunity.”
LIVERPOOL will write this off the morning after the 30 years before, and having waited so long for a domestic league title, you have to say fair enough.
Yet for Man City, this thrashing of the newly-crowned champions is not meaningless. The most striking aspect was the sheer sloppiness of Jurgen Klopp’s players, but the second-most was the relish with which their challengers dispatched each of their four goals.
This emphatic victory — secured by a Kevin de Bruyne penalty, a Raheem Sterling strike, what could be a breakthrough moment for Phil Foden and an Alex Oxlade-chamberlain own goal — reduced Liverpool’s unassailable lead to a mere 20 points, but it also lent credence to the argument held by some that, on their day, City are potentially the better side.
That day has only come every so often for City this season, while days like these have been practically unprecedented for Liverpool.
That, ultimately, has been the difference between the two and the reason why Pep Guardiola and his players were forced to give their visitors an amusingly half-hearted guard of honour as they walked onto the pitch.
Liverpool actually began well, arguably shading the opening exchanges, and if Mohamed Salah had found the inside of the post rather than striking it while the scoreline was still 0-0 then they would probably have avoided what followed. But almost immediately after Joe Gomez tangled clumsily with Sterling to concede a penalty, the balance of play emphatically shifted City’s way.
Gomez and Sterling infamously confronted each other in November’s reverse fixture, leading to a separate contretemps in the St George’s Park canteen while away on international duty and a public apology from Sterling.
You wondered whether that was in Sterling’s mind as Gomez began grabbing hold of his torso tightly inside the area, but by the time he had let go, there was no doubt it was a foul.
De Bruyne stepped up and scored his fourth successive spotkick.