Alan Hansen once said it could be worth 12 points a season. Sir Alex Ferguson estimated more around the 15 mark, while Brian Clough put the figure as high as 18. But they all agreed on the fact that having an outstanding goalkeeper is essential to building a successful team.
Arsene Wenger is another of football's deepest thinkers, possibly one of the greatest spotters of talent the English game has seen, yet he has suffered from an infuriating blind-spot which has hampered his attempts to stay at the top of the game; the ability to either recruit or develop a genuinely world class goalkeeper who can have this kind of transformative impact on his team.