As Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon makes the short journey south to Sunderland for an astonishing £9 million, surely the Premier Leagues summer spending spree has now crossed the line from being mildly outlandish to just plain crazy?

Or has it?

The fee paid for the Hearts stopper usurps Fabien Barthezs £7.8 million previous British goalkeeping record and is proof weve come some way since Nigel Martyn became the first £1 million keeper, swapping Bristol Rovers for Crystal Palace 18 years ago.

But then to be shocked at big money being lavished on a solid number one is to completely underrate their importance. No other player can make or break a side as drastically as the man between the sticks (see the Goalkeepers Are Different site for a look at all things keepery).

Just ask any Liverpool fan to draw the painful line from Bruce Grobbelaar to Pepe Reina (Michael Stensgaard anyone?) Remind a Manchester United fan of those dark post-Peter Schmeichel days of Mark Bosnich, Massimo Taibi, Roy Carroll and even Andy Goram.

Who were the last team to win a title with a dodgy keeper? Barthez and Lehmann may have been a bit eccentric but then they do share 133 international caps between them.

Edwin van der Sar, Petr Cech, David Seaman, Schmeichel, Tim Flowers, John Lukic, Grobbelaar and Neville Southall complete the elite list of championship winning number ones of the past 25 years.

Perhaps Gordon wont be joining that list while on Wearside, but his employers could have made a shrewd move as 24-year-old, established international goalkeepers are a rare commodity today.

Padraic Halpin, London