Butland an innocent yet erring victim of Stoke’s slump and poor decision-making
▶ Goalkeeper, once a target for Liverpool, has had a woeful start to the season, just like his club,
It used to be unheard of. An English goalkeeper excelling in a penalty shoot-out. Whatever next? Instead, it has become a common occurrence of late. After Jordan Pickford’s exploits against Colombia in 2018 and Switzerland in 2019 came his deputy’s efforts at Elland Road on Tuesday.
But Jack Butland was a shootout star with a difference; saving none of Leeds’ penalties, but scoring Stoke City’s decisive one. It nevertheless represented a rare upturn in one of the starker, swifter falls in recent history. Come Saturday, he may revert to a place on the bench for the Championship’s bottom club when Stoke visit Birmingham City.
His trip to Leeds was a decidedly mixed affair. Leeds’ Eddie Nketiah scored after Butland’s clearance cannoned off his own defender, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and into the striker’s path. Being generous, it was the fourth goal this season that was his fault. Some would say it was the fifth.
There was Jordan Hugill’s strike for QPR, when Butland rushed out of his box and missed the ball. Then followed Lyle Taylor’s shot for Charlton Athletic, which entered the net, damningly near the middle of the goal, with Butland clawing at thin air. The nadir followed at Deepdale: Preston North End midfielder Daniel Johnson’s 20-yard shot beat Butland at his near post.
After he made another ill-advised foray out of his penalty area, he was defeated again when Billy Bodin’s tame effort crept under him. It amounts to more mistakes in August than many goalkeepers will make in a season.
Perhaps it is part of the curse of Stoke, 24th in the Championship with a top-six squad, a place where underachievement has become institutionalised in a terrible two years
before some of those who leave, like Erik Pieters, suddenly seem liberated to excel.
If errors, as manager Nathan Jones has suggested, may have been the product of a distracted mind, they highlight a decline that has been compounded by a colossal failure of strategy on Stoke’s part.
They have priced Butland out of a move, repeatedly failing to read the transfer-market runes as a player who wants to resume a top-flight career has looked less attractive to Premier League predators.
Butland’s best season was 2015/16. When Stoke went down in 2018, he had long been monitored by Liverpool and was of interest to Wolves. Yet Stoke, taking Pickford’s price as a guide, wanted £30 million (Dh134m), a fee that would have made him among the most expensive shot-stoppers ever. Wolves acquired Rui Patricio, a better goalkeeper, for half the price. Liverpool got Alisson, arguably the world’s best.
Twelve months later, Stoke’s false economy continued. After a season when the Championship’s finest goalkeepers were Dean Henderson of Sheffield United, Darren Randolph of Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion’s Sam Johnstone, they demanded £22m for Butland.
Aston Villa, who had been interested, acquired Tom Heaton for £8m instead. Bournemouth, who had considered him, bought no one. Butland had changed agents in a bid to get a move. He was stuck at Stoke, a diminishing asset, on and off the field, and another indication of City’s costly inability to cut their losses.
Kevin Wimmer, Giannelli Imbula and Bruno Martins Indi have gone unused this season; two terrible signings and one rather decent defender who Stoke have neither picked nor sold. The £15m midfielder Joe Allen, who could have commanded Premier League interest, has been dropped along with the £10m buy Sam Vokes.
The sense is Stoke have a dreadful dressing room. But Butland, the man who gave £5,000 to Great Britain’s women’s deaf team and who was distraught at demotion in 2018, was not among the trouble-makers. A good character has instead been in bad form, looking an innocent yet erring victim of their demise and decision-making. He has looked the right man in the wrong place at the wrong time, and not just when leaving his box.
Butland has made more mistakes in August than many goalkeepers will make in a season