As goalkeepers hit the headlines for the wrong reasons this week, I remembered a game at West Ham many years ago when a big lad by the name of Phil Parkes really caught the eye.

It was in the days when we had a good attacking side with the likes of Kevin Keegan and Alan Ball and I was sitting opposite my West Ham counterpart John Lyall in the Upton Park directors' box.

I said to him: "It's a good job you've got that goalkeeper otherwise we'd be giving you a hammering."

The man in question was Parkes, who was a real giant, and John said signing him had made a huge difference.

He estimated that he was worth an extra six to ten points a season - bearing in mind, of course, that it was two points for a win in those days.

I was in the process of completing what would have been my fifth team during my term at The Dell.

I'd inherited the first and promptly got relegated, and after that it was to build a second for promotion - although winning the FA Cup ironically made the job of getting out of that second division more difficult because everyone seemed to lift their game when they played us.

I then set about my third team, built particularly around Alan Ball; then, having got up, we had to ensure we maintained our top flight spot before I started on a fifth team to challenge for the top.

The capacity at The Dell had fallen to 15,000 from 31,000 but that didn't stop our ambition.

John Lyall's comments sunk in with me and I knew that to round things off I had to get the keeper's position improved.

I started enquiries for Ray Clemence at Liverpool and had actually come to an agreement with the club and had to persuade the player.

Unfortunately, it coincided with the pre-season period when we were travelling abroad and it's amazing to think now that the lack of a mobile phone probably stopped Ray joining us.

The problem was he had to be signed by a certain date to enable him to play in our early European games, otherwise he would have to wait until the later stages after January 1.

I remember standing in a busy airport in Holland with a pile of coins trying to carry on negotiations in a public pay phone, but time was against me.

Ray was wanting to play in Europe because he had been so used to it at Liverpool, so he became one of the few players I failed to get and he went instead to Tottenham.

It made me more determined and I eventually finished up with Peter Shilton, Ray's great rival for the England position and arguably the better of the two.

Ray had 60 caps; Peter went on to create a world record of 125 caps and 60 clean sheets.

He'd played for my old mate Brian Clough, who agreed with Lyall's statement about how valuable a great number one is. He put it more in terms of goals saved.

Shilton, he claimed, had enabled them to concede 20 fewer goals per season - meaning they didn't have to score so many to win!

Today's goalkeepers, though, usually only hit the headlines when they supposedly drop a clanger which costs their team points.

Jersey Dudek was this week's example, gifting Pompey their last-minute equaliser, and last Sunday it was Tomas Sorensen making an error which cost Aston Villa.

David James, unfortunately, has had his many fine performances overshadowed by the odd lapse which has earned him the nickname of Calamity.

But what has highlighted the number one position more than anything is that both Arsenal and Man United seem to be having difficulties in that department.

It seems to be no coincidence that Chelsea, who have pulled away from both, appear to have improved with the arrival of Peter Cech to add to the very impressive Carlo Cudicini, who was so outstanding last season.

While I added Shilton to enable us to aim for the top, I'm sure that in the light of Saints' current situation, Harry Redknapp will be happy to have Antti Niemi fit again.

There's no doubt Antti is in that category of winning points and saving goals over a season. And you would probably say the same of young Robert Green at Norwich, who is tipped for international honours.