Pressure to get results in the EFL means clubs are thinking outside the box. By exploiting a loophole in the emergency goalkeeper loan rule, they've found a clever but controversial way to save them money.
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00:00The role of the number 2 goalkeeper changes depending on the size of the club. For the
00:07very biggest teams, such as the money and data poured into choosing a number 1, anyone
00:11brought in below is expected to sit tight, stay fit and enjoy their annual run out in
00:15the early rounds of the Carabao Cup. Further down the Premier League, there's also often
00:19the chance to displace a regular custodian, be they form or fitness, eventually working
00:23your favour. The unfancied Jason Steele unseated Robert Sanchez at Brighton last season, largely
00:27because of his better work with the ball at his feet. But scale down the footballing
00:31pyramid to where every single penny counts, and the number 2 goalkeeper is slowly, quietly
00:36becoming a controversial topic in football. Men sign not to play second fiddle, but specifically
00:41to exploit the loophole in the rules by not playing at all. This is the rise of the fake
00:47number 2 goalkeeper.
00:49Daniel Geli is a former Hungarian under-21 goalkeeper. Now 26, he's just been released
00:53by national league side Maidenhead United. 10 years ago, a promising career lay in front
00:58of him. He moved to England from Hungary and signed for then-Premier League club Stoke
01:02City. He began playing for their under-21 and under-18 sides, all the while earning
01:06caps for Hungary's international youth teams up to under-21 level. In 2016 and 2017, he
01:11was loaned to local non-league side Nantwich Town and played a total of 8 games there.
01:15In 2018, Stoke were relegated to the championship. At this stage, Daniel is 21 and hasn't played
01:20a minute of senior football in the English Football League. That's just 2 EFL trophy
01:24games on his CV.
01:25At the end of Stoke's first season in the championship, they finished 16th. Daniel was
01:28released. Wigan signed him. He was named on the bench by the Lads four times in the 2019-20
01:33season, but didn't play a single minute of football. Wigan released him when he signed
01:37for Peterborough in League 1 and was named their number 2 goalkeeper for the 2020-21
01:41season. After 39 appearances on the bench for Posh, their number 1 goalkeeper, Christy Pym,
01:46Finally, Daniel's big chance? No. Why? Because he is a fake number 2 goalkeeper.
01:53Instead of handing their young Hungarian number 2 his first ever minute of senior football,
01:56Peterborough chose to activate the EFL's Emergency Goalkeeper Loan Clause. This allows
02:00them to bring in a replacement goalkeeper with more experience on loan for 7 days because
02:04they had no professional goalkeepers available in the eyes of the EFL.
02:08Crucially, the EFL's definition of a professional goalkeeper is a goalkeeper excluding any goalkeeper
02:13registered as a non-contract player who has been named in the starting XI on 5 or more
02:17occasions by any club or a Premier League club in any matches in the relevant league
02:22or first team cup competitions other than the EFL trophy. Emergency goalkeeper loans
02:27last a week, but can be extended in weekly increments. At this stage, Daniel is 24 and
02:32has made zero appearances in a professional league or cup game. The loophole meant he
02:36remained on Peterborough's bench with Joe Bursick joining on emergency loan from, oh
02:40cruel irony, Stoke City. To make matters worse, Bursick is 3 years younger than Daniel
02:46and had played 15 games in Ligue 1, via a loan to Doncaster that season. Bursick was
02:50actually recalled by Stoke that season during a goalkeeping crisis and played 10 further
02:54championship games for them, dizzying 25 senior games to his name, comfortably qualifying
02:59him as a professional goalkeeper in the eyes of the EFL. Football is cruel, and it got
03:04crueler for Daniel. That summary was put on the transfer list by Peterborough and frozen
03:08out of the team, not even appearing on the bench. Then, just after Christmas, he was
03:12loaned to Maidenhead United in National League. After 2 games, he signed permanently. At last,
03:17regular football, albeit in non-league. Things were going well until disaster struck in April
03:22this year when he sustained an ACL injury. It means he's unlikely to play football again
03:26until 2024. What's worse is the fact he will have to start without a club, as Maidenhead
03:30released him at the beginning of June. After all, what non-league club can afford to pay
03:35an injured player for 6 months? There are other examples of fake number twos
03:38if you look closely. In 2021-22, Conor Ripley was signed for Salford for Preston on an emergency
03:44loan that was extended 4 times. He played 7 games for Salford and once in the FA Cup.
03:49Zac Gcock was the fake number two in this instance, and even more intriguing is that
03:53he was a loaned in fake number two, having been signed on loan by Salford for the season
03:58from Birmingham. Gcock returned to Birmingham towards the end of the 2021-22 season and
04:03played 2 first team games, conceding 10 goals. Now 22, he has just 24 games on his CV but
04:09only a handful of these are in the AFL. The rest are non-league appearances. You could
04:13argue he's miles off first team football at any professional level and way behind where
04:17a 22-year-old keeper with his talent could be.
04:20Goalkeeping structure has changed. Fake number twos are likely to become more common, while
04:24the emergency loan option exists. The clause is actually designed in theory to protect
04:29inexperienced young goalkeepers from being thrown in the deep end in the AFL, but it's
04:32also potentially taking crucial senior minutes away from slightly older goalkeepers like
04:37Daniel Goliath and Zac Gcock.
04:40Host of the GK Union podcast, Matt Beadle points out that incredibly, Grimsby didn't
04:44have a number two goalkeeper in their matchday squad for most of their games last season.
04:48Beadle also predicts that soon, most League 1 and League 2 number one goalkeepers will
04:52be loaned in from the Premier League and Championship.
04:54In the Premier League, clubs will have a strong number one, a strong number two and more recently
04:58a semi-strong and ultimately reliable number three, he explains. High profile examples
05:03of reliable number threes this season include Manchester City's Scott Carson and Marcus
05:07Bettinelli at Chelsea. However, with less money naturally available in the third and
05:11fourth tiers, less resources are forthcoming. As a result, the depth of a goalkeeping department
05:16is naturally compromised.
05:17Imagine the goalkeeping budget for a League 2 club is £2,500 a week. That club could
05:23sign two decent goalkeepers, one on £1,500 a week and the other on £1,000 a week, granting
05:28a certain level of assurance. Or they could exploit the emergency loan system, utilise
05:33a large share of the budget on a very strong number one and stick a fake number two on
05:36the bench. Low budgets plus pressure for results make this an increasing trend.
05:42Harry Eistead is a goalkeeper who you could argue has finally escaped the limbo of the
05:45fake number two role. He was loaned to Barnsley from Luton this January, having played less
05:49than five EFL games in a very malnourished career. He turned 26 in March. Eistead performed
05:54well at Barnsley, almost helping them seal promotion to the Championship via the playoffs
05:57and was unofficial man of the match in the final versus Sheffield Wednesday, making an
06:01incredible save in extra time.
06:04But the Daniel G-O-L-I's and Zach G-Cox remain are victims of the EFL's emergency loan rule.
06:09It's tough for goalkeepers like them to leave a club and gain valuable experience elsewhere
06:13because the reality is their lack of experience can be an advantage to a club. It provides
06:17a certain veil of protection should the number one get injured during a game. But you can
06:21bet the next day the club will be calling the EFL to activate the emergency loan clause
06:25to protect their fake number two if their number one is going to be out for a number
06:29of games. Young goalkeepers are seeing out stopgap contracts and then being released
06:34for copycat successes. Sure, they've had involvement in a professional environment
06:37but their CV boasts a big fat zero next to professional appearances. What follows is
06:42an inevitable drop into non-league in a bid to start the journey again. But fail to perform
06:47at that level or even worse get injured and the dream of professional football can quickly
06:51slip through a goalkeeper's hands.