English Goalkeeper Set to Join Team
Newcastle United have signed England international Nick Pope from Burnley for £10million. The deal is reported to be a four-year contract that will keep the 30-year-old in Tyneside until the summer of 2026 and was first reported by The Daily Telegraph’s Luke Edwards.
The move proves the new regime ambitious but shrewd as Pope follows in the footsteps of Kieran Tripper, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, and Dan Burn who all joined the club after it was acquired by Saudi Arabian-based PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media late last year. Pope is an incredible signing that is slated to improve the first 11 right away and comes without much financial outlay.
“Now I’m here, I can’t wait to get started,” said Pope. “The deal has taken a couple of weeks to come to fruition but it got over the line really quickly, and I’m delighted to be here and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it.”
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe was delighted by the exceptional piece of business done by the club and remarked “Nick is an exceptional Premier League and international goalkeeper so I’m very pleased to be adding strong competition to a very important position. There has been a lot of interest in him from other clubs this summer, so I’d like to thank our owners and everyone behind the scenes for getting us ahead of the competition. I’m delighted he is joining us as we prepare for the exciting challenge ahead.”
Pope is now Newcastle United’s second summer signing following former Aston Villa left-back Matt Target’s permanent move after spending the last half of the previous season on loan at the club. Pope will now challenge Martin Dubravka, Karl Darlow, and Keith Gillespie for the no.1 goalkeeper position at the club.
Pope is also a longtime admirer of Newcastle United legend Sir Bobby Robson and retweeted a video of him back in 2018. Pope said when asked about that tweet: “Sir Bobby, for myself, [I] was an Ipswich Town fan growing up. Obviously, I still watch, be a season ticket holder, watch and learn their games. Sir Bobby is someone who’s a massive part of the history of that football club. And obviously, my old man, who you used to take me down there, always spoke incredibly highly of him and what he did for the football club there.”
“Obviously when he moved to Newcastle, the family followed a little bit because of him really. [I’ve] always known Newcastle from the outside as a massive football city and are a club that even when things are not going well, the fans and the city really stick with the team and try and drag them forward with them. Something that from the outside, a club that, you know, I think everyone would want to be a part of, in regards to having that level of support.”
Pope also left a message to Burnley fans as he left the club, saying: “Burnley, thank you for everything you have given me in the last 6 years. It was a true honour to represent your club, your town. Your unwavering support was unbelievable for myself and the team. Every time putting on the shirt was magic.”
“Last season still hurts and will stay with me forever I imagine but so will many happy memories like helping to bring European football to Turf Moor. Thank you also to the staff I worked with and the lads in the dressing room. On and off the pitch you made it an absolute joy. See you soon my brothers.”
Pope leaves Burnley after the club failed in their battle against the drop and were ultimately relegated last season. He will now rejoin former Burnley teammate Chris Wood who left Turf Moor for St James’ Park in January on a £25million transfer. “He’s a minimum 12 clean sheets a season,” Wood had previously said of the Soham-born shot-stopper. “He is one of the best keepers I’ve worked with and, in my eyes, should be England’s number one.”
Burnley confirmed the news that Pope had left for Newcastle on Thursday morning: “We can confirm that Nick Pope has today completed a permanent transfer to Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee. The club would like to thank Nick for all his efforts during his time at Turf Moor and wish him all the best for the future.”
In his four full seasons at Burnley, Nick Pope kept 46 Premier League clean sheets. Only Ederson (71), Hugo Lloris (49), and David De Gea (48) kept more over the same period. Pope also has the most keeper sweeper regains in the Premier League since the 2019/2020 season according to statistics and analytics company, Squawka. The “do-it-all” keeper beats out the best sweeper keepers in the league in that department with 72 as Allison Becker (70), Ederson (50), and Aaron Ramsdale (43) all trail him.
Pope’s numbers at Burnley are incredible considering how busy he was kept by attacking offenses at the club. He has also made the second-most saves of all goalkeepers in the Premier League since the 2019/2020 season with an impressive 355 saves, trailing only Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale (366). All factors considered, Newcastle have now got an incredible goalkeeper in his prime to help solve their previously leaky goaltending problem. Newcastle only kept 8 clean sheets last season and conceded a massive 62 goals, bettering only 5 other teams in that regard.
Newcastle opens their 2022/2023 campaign by welcoming newly-promoted Nottingham Forest to St. James’ Park on Saturday, 6th of August at 3 pm BST.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Charltonkyle. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.