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Mhyre was ok but prior to Martyn we had Gerrard, Simonsen and then Richard Wright who were all highly rated young goalkeepers but clearly not PL level and didn't improve. We had a good 3 years or so with a liability in goal.

Martyn was a very good goalkeeper because he was calm and improved his defenders. Suddenly we stopped shipping silly goals and looked like we'd keep clean sheets. But he wasn't very mobile - we played quite deep and were a strong defensive side.

I remember when we first signed Tim Howard and he occassioanly gave fouls away outside the box or potential handballs. It was unthinkable that Martyn would be that far off his line and really showed the difference. While I think Martyn was good enough to have been a great GK for us had he not been at the end of his career, there was a definite sense that we needed a more "modern" one.

While Martyn was a better GK than Howard overall, that replacement played a big part in how we progressed under Moyes from being a solid team to genuinely challenging for trophies. So I think it does Howard a bit of a disservice to overstate how good Martyn was.

And Pickford is CLEARLY ahead of both of them because he doesn't have the glaring weakness of either of those (mobility and distribution for Martyn, shots from distance for Howard).

Plus Jordan's a nutter and we like that. Heir to Southall is enough. He's up there.