Joe Murphy was an excellent goalkeeper for us, he wasn't the finished article, but not many Championship goalkeepers are. In my mind, Westwood was a deity he was that good. I was convinced he'd be a Prem GK after us - well, he wasn't...
I love how the example you've used to make your point is Barca, Man City, Chelsea and Madrid, compared to us!? All these teams, compared to us, literally have endless resources. Man City pay £50m for full backs... And even last year they were stuck with Bravo, who had the worst save % in the league.
I think of all the positions we needed to strengthen in the summer, and even this window, GK was probably at the bottom of the list of priorities. Burge is a good L2 GK, no question about it. The mistake yesterday cost us a goal but he's made 2 mistakes in 20 games, and the usual suspects are calling for LOB to be reinstated to the 1st team. He looked a bit all over the place for a few chances at Stoke, and he was responsible for 2 mistakes consecutively against the lesser teams in this division and deservedly lost the shirt he'd earned with his early performances.
All this talk of Burge doing well this season because of the defence in front of him, you can't completely put it down to that, because he's made less mistakes (as in a games:mistakes ratio) than LOB who's had the same defence in front of him.
As for GK over the years, it's actually a position I've been happy with, we had Hedman when I first started keeping track of us and since had; Steele, Fulop, Marshall, Schmeichel, Westwood, Murphy. I also seem to remember Bywater being terrible for us, but he's had a good career since us so I don't know if I was being fair or not. Say what you like, but even in the last few seasons, I just don't think goalkeeper has been that much of a priority compared to other positions.
My 2p.