It’s an area we’ve been bad in for a while. I mean Ruddy was on the bench for ****s sake. Not sure why the club have dicked about here for. Need to get someone really decent in.
Should have been in for Alex Meret off Napoli in the summer - his contract had expired (or we were able to offer him one on a free) - lost his place to a loan player now at Napoli as well...
For me a Gk is the one position where stats come to the fore. Things like progressive passes, shots faced/saved, goals from errors, that kind of thing. I’m not convinced Newcastle are very good at stat driven recruitment. Be interesting to see how keepers around Europe stand up - it’s why Man U went for some Belgian and he’s proven to be a significant upgrade on the more visually-appealing and highly rated at the time Onana. I can’t imagine Ramsdale was particularly high on any list.
and there's some fans that roll their eyes whenever his name is mentioned. scumberland apparently pay £9 for their keeper, are there better cheaper 'keepers out there?
We were linked with Guillaume Restes (20) out of Toulouse at the end of November. He's the France u21 keeper and has high expectations. Might be a bit early to throw him into the 1st team in the summer though. Then again, if needs must I suppose... I don't thunk Pope or Ramsdale are long term optuons
Then we might as well promote Max Thompson? He has represented England at most youth levels and has been in our first team squad. I keep getting this feeling that despite signing players for the development squad they will never get to realise their potential as never given a chance
Within all the links you can usually filter out the real targets... For example, I would expect Howe will continue to pursue Strand Larsen, and the McTominay link is genuine I think.
