Carlisle United have chosen an inexperienced goalkeeper to be their new number one. This is 2017, but it could also be 2012, or 2009, or 2005, or 2000.

It is not as new, or as risky, as it might feel, the decision to entrust Jack Bonham - 23 years old, eight senior appearances - with the job of protecting the Blues' net.

Some have wondered if Keith Curle should have gone for a more seasoned player to wear the gloves in 2017/18. Considering United leaked heavily even when reaching the play-offs, wouldn't an older hand have offered a better sense of security?

Certainly, it is hard to argue that a half-season loan deal for a barely-tried young contender reflects a long-term strategy for one of the most important positions in any side.

But pushing the "experience" button offers fewer guarantees than it is often tempting to think.

Consider some of the more successful Carlisle keepers of the recent past, and how streetwise they were by the time they first pulled on the club's jersey.

Keiren Westwood, comfortably the best, was not even supposed to be first-choice in 2005/6's season of glory. United started the campaign with a relatively experienced new signing, 27-year-old Anthony Williams.

He was supposed to be the steady hand that guided the Blues through the challenging return to the Football League. Instead, early errors opened the door to Westwood, who did not so much decline to look back as ripped off the rear-view mirrors once he was in position.

When that change was made, Westwood had made seven professional starts. It remains one of Paul Simpson's most inspired decisions, but it is easy to forget how green Westwood was when that gamble was first taken.

The man Williams was signed to replace, Matty Glennon, had left Carlisle that summer as an experienced player. He wasn't when he first stepped into the side, though. His first appearance for the Blues, on loan in 2000, was only his second in senior football.

The men he succeeded, Peter Keen and Luke Weaver, were not veterans exactly, but they were a little more familiar with a lower-league goalmouth. Glennon, though, quickly outperformed both.

More recently, it was mainly Greg Abbott who had to deal with the post-Westwood landscape at United. His first goalkeeping signing was the precocious Tim Krul from Newcastle, whose time in Carlisle's goal was regrettably short but highly impressive.

The next summer, with Ben Williams sold to Colchester, Abbott went for Lenny Pidgeley, who had ample experience from his time at Millwall. His understudy, Adam Collin, awaited his first Football League chance, having impressed in non-league for Workington Reds. By November, the younger man had displaced the misfiring older pro and it was swiftly the end for Pidgeley.

Collin built a substantial career at United until he was unseated by another rookie: Mark Gillespie. The latter has now joined Walsall as a veteran of 180 appearances, a void Curle has initially sought to fill with Bonham.

It is, as with any young signing, a risk. Bonham's brief tastes of first-team football have yielded a couple of high-profile errors and a number of goals against. Equally, Brentford, a club where few decisions are taken blindly under the data-driven ownership of Matthew Benham, have given the goalkeeper a new contract before loaning him to Cumbria.

He has, according to manager Dean Smith, "great potential", and while a boss is hardly going to tell the bidding club they are getting a dud, nothing is to be gained by dismissing the move before Bonham has even got a glove dirty for United, where Curle appears to admire his size and distribution.

The quest for a sure thing is transfer market holy grail. A proven goalscorer is another regular demand, but just as often a goalscorer only becomes proven once he has joined United.

Charlie Wyke only matured into one after leaving Middlesbrough's reserves. Karl Hawley, discarded by Walsall, the same. It was United who first harnessed Joe Garner's explosive potential in first-team football while Danny Graham had not settled as a reliable predator until his time at Brunton Park was under way.

There are obvious exceptions (Lee Miller, Jabo Ibehre) but developing an unknown will always be part of the remit at Carlisle's level, often in the very front line.

Similarly, if an obviously reliable No1 is out of reach - the experienced Luke McCormick and David Forde were probably last season's best in League Two - then there comes a stage when a manager must trust his scouting and his instincts.

A loan until January 1 does not suggest a bedrock. One imagines, though that in the event of Bonham proving up to scratch, extending it would not be complicated, given the Bees have two more established keepers already and Smith has stressed the need for Bonham to gain regular games.

If Brentford do need him back for cover, the risk of a new year recall is plain, but it is not as if being on a permanent deal tied Wyke any closer to the Blues when the circumstances shifted last winter.

If he flops, he flops, and the buck falls with the manager. Beyond doubt there will be scrutiny on Curle's attempts to heal Carlisle's problem area - the defensive record - in 2017/18.

United's tumbleweed close-season also needs answering for. The news vacuum has been filled in part with the arrivals of Kelvin Etuhu and Hallam Hope but before that the perception has been one of inactivity, or struggle.

If neither has been the case, those in the building who have taken flak for it would be entitled to know why it was allowed to play out that way.

What matters most, though, is that United reach August 5 fully stocked and with a safe pair of hands. Bonham may be that, he may not, but given that inexperience has not always held Blues keepers back, opinion should not be stacked against him yet.