Alnwick ready to prove he’s a keeper after Rangers exit New St Mirren stopper says McGregor was a great mentor
AFTER three years of loan moves and warming the bench at Ibrox, Jak Alnwick is ready and determined to make the St Mirren No.1 shirt his own.
The 27-year-old signed a twoyear contract with the Paisley club earlier this week and faces the daunting prospect of replacing Vaclav Hladky in goal for Jim Goodwin’s side after the Czech keeper left in search of a new club.
Alnwick, though, is more than ready to show that he has what it takes to be an automatic pick for Goodwin between the sticks and says that he is not spurred on by showing Rangers what they could have had – rather, he wants to prove it to himself.
“First and foremost, I want to prove to myself that I can do it,” Alnwick said. “In my time there, I played a few games and was quite pleased with a lot of them.
“Obviously the semi-final against Motherwell I was disappointed with but in the quarter-final I got man of the match. That shows when you are not playing every week that you are going to have that inconsistency.
“Do I feel I have to show to Rangers what I can do? To be honest, I’d rather show to my manager at the time – the gaffer here – what I can do and prove it to myself.
“If Rangers turn round in a year’s time and think, ‘Yeah, we didn’t really give him his opportunity’ then that’s brilliant. That will mean I’ve done my job properly.”
Alnwick may never have gotten a fair crack of the whip while on the books at Ibrox – the former Newcastle goalkeeper made around a dozen appearances over the three years he spent in Govan – but he does not look back on his time at the club as wasted effort.
Learning from the likes of Allan McGregor, playing in front of large crowds and a couple of largely successful loan spells are just some of the positives he can take from the experience – one which he says was disruptive in part due to the number of different managers he worked under at Rangers.
Alnwick explained: “When I signed it was [Mark] Warburton and within two weeks he’d gone and all of a sudden you go from Warbs to [Graeme] Murty to [Pedro] Caixinha back to Murty to [Steven] Gerrard all within the space of a couple of years. It was tough for the managers to come in and make big changes.
“Greegsy [McGregor] has looked after himself well. His first season back at Rangers was probably the best in his career. You’ve got to look at the way he’s looked after himself and the way he conducts himself and just take little pointers. Even as you get older you are always going to learn little things that will stick with you.
“He was brilliant whether I was out on loan or back at the club. I’ll hopefully take a few little pointers from every goalie I’ve worked with and use them.”
ARSENAL head coach Mikel Arteta insists he did not axe Matteo Guendouzi from the squad at Southampton to send the player a message following his recent antics.
The Gunners ran out 2-0 winners against 10-man Saints as goals from Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock earned Arteta’s side their first points since the Premier League season resumed.
Guendouzi was conspicuous by his absence from the 20 Arsenal players who made the trip to St Mary’s.
The 21-year-old midfielder surprisingly escaped a Football Association charge having grabbed Neal Maupay by the throat at the full-time whistle in Saturday’s defeat at Brighton.
But, despite his reprieve, Arteta opted not to take Guendouzi to the south coast – although he denied it was anything other than squad rotation.
“No [it wasn’t punishment for Brighton]. It was squad management,” he said.
“I don’t like to make any decisions to send messages. The messages that I send to the team or individually are very open and I’m clear with how I feel.”
Maupay had struck a last-gasp winner for the Seagulls as Arsenal lost their second game back having been outclassed at Manchester City three days earlier.
Arteta, who picked up his first Premier League away win as head coach, admitted his players were left hurting after Brighton’s comeback win last time out.
“I was concerned because after the defeat at Brighton where we threw the game away, it really touched the team,” he said.
“Confidence is everything in this game and we have to lift them up, but I could see yesterday the reaction was really positive and they were really at it.”