Making sense of Newcastle United’s new signings
Posted on September 7th, 2024 | No Comments |
Whilst some of the signings by Newcastle United this season are predictable and understandable, like Lewis Hall’s move from Chelsea after a season on loan, and the signing of Lloyd Kelly, a decent enough utility defender who played for Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, there are some which seem slightly more perplexing though, at least initially. In this piece, I will look at some of these, starting with Newcastle’s current roster of five first team goalkeepers.
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?
Moving on, there is also a new centre forward, 21 year old William Osula, signed from Sheffield United for (reportedly) £10 million on the nail with up to £5 million in add ons. With Callum Wilson’s woeful injury record, another reserve hitman was a must. However, from what I know about him (and that isn’t a huge amount), he is all potential and not many goals as yet. In 24 appearances for Sheffield United last season, he scored 3 goals at a rate of a goal every 315 minutes, but it’s early days yet and of course, I cannot deny that Eddie Howe and his team have a very good record in improving players that weren’t quite as good as they could be. Here’s hoping they all do well!