Asmir Begovic has followed in the footsteps of another youngster, Marc Wilson, by agreeing a new 3-year contract with Pompey.
The highly rated Canadian keeper will now be contracted to Pompey until 2011, and as he told the Pompey Site this signing of a new contract was an easy decision to make: ‘it’s a nice honour to be wanted here.
‘I’ve been here a long time and there’s not really a reason for me to want to leave, so I think it’s a mutual decision to stay.
Begovic has praised the coaching that he has received at the club, putting a lot of this firmly at the door of our goalkeeping coach David Coles but also intends to keep learning from David James: ‘David Coles, our goalkeeping coach, has probably been one of the biggest factors in helping me to develop and progress. He’s been huge.
‘It’s a gradual thing, I started here with the youth team, then I was training with the first team and now I need to become established and go out and play and keep pushing up. That’s what I want to keep trying to do.
‘Competing for a place in the team is one of the most difficult things about being a keeper.
‘It’s hard with someone as good as David James in front of you, but it’s good to see what he does, to learn from him.
‘He’s England’s number one. He works hard, has different ways of doing things and you pick things up from him. We have a good relationship.’
With James around I would not expect him to play regularly in the next 2-3 years, but hopefully he can continue to develop and do the job if/when called upon. When James does move on, which is a frightening thought to even contemplate, then there is a chance he could be the man to breach the gap…
He has already had loans with Macclesfield, Bournemouth and Yeovil and I would expect him to go out on loan again in the not too distant future, which would benefit all concerned.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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