Making sense of Newcastle United’s new signings
Posted on September 7th, 2024 | No Comments |
There are the two new goalkeepers, Odysseas Vlachodimos and John Ruddy from Nottingham Forest and Birmingham respectively.
Ruddy, a player in the autumn of his career at 37, was signed on a free transfer. On the other hand, despite reports of Vlachodimos signing for an ‘undisclosed’ sum, the fee quoted by Tranfermarkt for him at the time of writing is €23.6 million (£19.7 million). He allegedly attracted interest from Manchester United when he played for Benfica, but he ended up signing for Nottingham Forest last season and he wasn’t a success, making only 7 appearances for the club. According to the Chronicle, he was signed because Martin Dubravka wanted to leave in search of more first team games elsewhere, though the transfer window is now over, and Dubravka is still at the club. On the other side, his spells at Panithinaikos and Benfica has given him a fair amount of European experience. It will be interesting to see how his career on Tyneside pans out.
As I mentioned earlier, this now leaves Newcastle United with FIVE first team goalkeepers when you add Nick Pope, Martin Dubravka and 32 year old local lad, Mark Gillespie, to the list. Another fact which is perhaps as significant is that all of those five keepers are over 30. Whilst experience is good and goalkeepers often have a slightly longer career than outfield players, surely if the Magpies are going to have five keepers, there should be room for at least one young talent to learn his craft from the old timers, improve his game and hopefully, step up to the top level when the time is right?
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
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