Goalkeepers – who wins your starting place on August 5th?

Darlow

When we signed Matz Sels at the end of June, I have to say I was one of the fans who was very confused with a goalkeeper being our first signing.

Admittedly for the past 2 seasons we have had to rely on our 3rd choice goalkeeper but all that did for me was show the great strength in depth we have in this position with Elliot and Darlow both shining when they had to step up.

Now we have had a number of quality signings through the door, and that I have had time to sit back and think, the signing of a goalkeeper did make sense (I think maybe it was the fact he was our first signing which maybe shocked me the most). As Rob Elliot is out with a long term injury and a number of rumours of Tim Krul being sold back up to the Premiership, we needed to make sure there was a number of players with strong coverage in front of the sticks.

It is safe to say Rob Elliot will be out of the running due to injury and even if Tim Krul does stay it will be touch and go too as to whether he will be back to full fitness in time, but with 3 other talented Goalkeepers now on our books, who would you like to see in the starting line up in our first game of the season against Fulham on Friday 5th August?

Matz Sels – The 24 year old Belgian who joined us in June of this year. We got to see him play recently in the first half of our first Pre-season Game against Bohemian FC which we won 6-0. Being honest, I had not heard much of Matz Sels before his arrival to the Toon, but having read up on him since, his talent is obvious.

He was the number 1 goalkeeper for KAA Gent when they won their first ever Belgian Championship in the 2014/15 season and on January 2016 he was voted Belgian Goalkeeper of the year for 2015. Last season he gained Champions League experience and was also called up to the Belgium national team for qualifiers against Israel and Andorra – now considering Belgium are ranked number 2 in the world, that does deserve some credit.

Karl Darlow – Personally I believe Karl Darlow was one of the few highlights of the latter stages of the season. With Krul and Elliot injured we saw Darlow recover from his poor debut in the Premier League against WBA. He stepped up to the occasion and showed fine form and performances throughout the end of the season. Newcastle signed Darlow from Nottingham Forest after he had spent 4 years at the club making 64 appearances, he was then loaned back for the 2014/15 season where he made a further 42 appearances for them in the Championship. It is this Championship experience which I think will be valuable to Newcastle this coming season if we rely upon him.

Freddie Woodman – Woodman is currently at the Euros with England Under 19’s where he has helped them maintain a 100% record. Last season saw Freddie start at Crawley Town in League 2 where he made 12 appearances before Newcastle had to recall him due to our injury problems. Over the past 2 seasons he has made it onto our bench a number of times but never quite making that debut – could this season see him finally make that first team debut?

For me the answer to the question depends on a number of things – will Tim Krul leave?

If he does stay, will he be fit in time for the start of the season? Does Rafa continue to use both Sels and Darlow in pre-season and if he does how do they perform in the pre-season games?

The start of the season is too soon to see Freddie Woodman make his debut but he is a big talent and I hope he continues in this way to the point where we one day see him as Newcastle United’s number 1!

If it is down to Sels and Darlow it is a battle between my head and my heart as to who starts – my head says Sels due to his experience and Rafa would have brought him in for that (IN RAFA WE TRUST) but my heart says Darlow for his end of season exploits in goal last year, alongside his Championship experience.

123 thoughts on “Goalkeepers – who wins your starting place on August 5th?

  1. BBC Sporf ‏@BBCSporf · 28m28 minutes ago

    – Dimitri Payet cost West Ham £10 million.

    – Joe Allen cost Stoke City £13 million.

    😆

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  2. If all the keepers are fit, then for me my choice would be Elliott I reckon.

    I thought the lad was really good having been thrown in the deep end last season after Kruls injury.
    Kruls development seems to have stopped – maybe that could start again under Rafa, but personally I’d rather we cash in now.

    Darlow did well when he came in for Elliott – better than most expected, but he’s still a back up keeper for me. Sel needs time to settle before we can see how good he really is & I’d send Woodman out on loan personally.

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  3. I’m well pleased with the Hanley signing (soon to be). I think that puts real competition for places in that position now – competition that wasnt there all the while Colo was at the club IMO.
    I would still like us to sign another CB personally. Ideally I’d like a late 20s, early 30s CB to bring a bit of experience to that position.

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  4. I don’t understand the FA. They appoint someone who has not won anything significant after sticking with someone else who had never won anything significant until he proved what a spineless loser he was in abdicating responsibility to Rooney and going sightseeing when he could have scouted the next opponent. There were always rumours about his training methods being stuck in 1972 and now they appoint a coach whose match tactics are stuck in 1972.

    They are then considering Eddie Howe as assistant to have continuity. Are they mad? Howe will have his hands full trying to avoid second season syndrome with Bournemouth and will be fighting relegation with the promoted teams and the Mackems. He wont have time to worry about England.

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  5. Sharpy: I agree on Elliot and we need to cash in on Krul if he can pass a medical. There is still 6 weeks to go before the transfer window closes so hopefully he can get a run out to prove his fitness.

    I think the club have shown their intention toward Krul by signing Selz.

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  6. Shamrock I’m just a fan at the end of the day mate. I dont know much about Sel’s or Hanley to be honest. Not until I see them playing in a black and white shirt.

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  7. £25m for Gini then. Around double what we paid for him, so good return – however being greedy, I still would have liked to see us getting a bit more.
    Still at least HE didn’t have a stupid clause meaning we lost him for a lot less than that like.

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  8. Anything over £20m is a good return, I wish him well, Sissoko on the other hand………

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  9. watching Sels last nights highlights the bloke has not got a clue,hes going to take a lot of work to get anywhere near first team and i doubt he will,4.5 mil my god,think Rafa might have dropped a bo bo here

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  10. GG good read mate, for me I have more faith in Elliot , Krul has been a very good shot stopper for us but Elliot’s overall game is better especially his distribution .
    As for Gini very good business from the club, but I do think he has the potential to be a top top class player but it wasn’t going to be with us so we were better of getting shot.
    Know we just need to get shot of the biggest waster we have the big Sissy.

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  11. The two players who really could have made a difference to last seasons outcome were Wijnaldum & Sissoko. Both went missing when we needed them bar the odd flurry.

    They can both royally **** off for me & hopefully their “big” moves go as sour as Cabaye, Ba, Remy, Debuchy, Santon, Mbiwa, Jose, Caroll etc. etc.

    Gayle, Ritchie, Hayden, Hanley are excellent signings at championship level with ability to play higher, Gamez/Sels could have been playing in the champions league next season. Outstanding signings thus far from Benitez & Carr who seem to be cooperating well

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  12. Hard to believe the big kick off is just next week! Just starting to think of our line up and wondering, wondering about Mbemba. He’s probably our best CB but from what I’ve seen he’s also probably our best RB and it could be he’s our best DM! We might find out with Haney through the door.

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  13. Guardian seems confident in reporting the Gini fee to be £23m up front with £1m appearances add in and £1m add on if Liverpool hit certain targets. So I will trust their detailed word over Ryder.

    Fingers crossed we use that money to shore up rest of defense, a winger and striker now. Then if Sissy goes, I’d like to see a proper playmaker in the middle and the rest of the dough saved…still work to do, but getting there.

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  14. By the way. It was encouraging to see Armstrong given 60 minutes yesterday and he put in a good account for himself by the sounds of it. Hopefully he will be in the squad this season.

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  15. Sham: I find it funny that nobody trusts Ryder. Longtime supporters like Ice and Kimtoon despise him. I get annoyed that he is a bad writer and has a hidden agenda. He will Champion Scheve or Ugly John and then when they turn out to be ***** will shut up for a while. But things filter out in his articles always blaming other people and by implication saying he was right “if only this had happened”.

    I find it amazing that someone with the most access has the least information. He was on the US junket last year, the Spanish one with Schteve and the Ireland trip with Rafa. And yet we never get any real insight into the team. I thought the Chronicle chief sports writer would have a network of contacts feeding him information that he can pass on to his loyal readers. He never gets any new information. I am beginning to think he spends all of his time on these trips in the bar until 2am.

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  16. He is probably lazy Eric. If he put the effort in, he would have that insight. Not only that, he should have the insight I to other clubs too once he got to know scouts, agents etc.

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  17. Also Sham: we have talked about the finances before and I think we are in really good shape. We will probably make a net profit on sales of about 30 million and have shifted some very big salaries. I am sure there will be a bit of a shortfall on covering wages because of dropping down a division but I think we will more than break even.

    We will then still be left with the most expensive squad ever assembled in the Championship and a world class manager. Who would have thunk it? I reckon if we go on that Tansfermarkt website in a month our squad will be worth more than double our nearest rivals.

    It is so strange to have so much optimism after a relegation. I wonder how the Mackems are feeling? When they see Moyes’ scowling face that should cheer them up.

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  18. Apparently PSV will get £3.5m from the Gini sale… So in reality we will make about £3m profit up front, with a further £2m in add one. I don’t see that we have done particularly good business to be honest.

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  19. Yeah we are in a good place Eric. Sunderland are in the PL so they won’t be jealous of us at the minute, but that might change in 12 months! I think they are in serious trouble if they go down.

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  20. Moyes always reminds me of one of those dolls come to life in those horror movies. His furrowed brow, permanent scowl and eyes popping out of his head. Not quite a Chucky doll, but if he gets the Mackem job I will find one that he looks like and post a link.

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  21. Sham: I don’t think we had much choice with Gini and nor with Sissoko so we take what we can get. 20 million to replenish the coffers is not to be sniffed at.

    Don’t get me wrong about the Mackems. I would much rather be in the PL but this could be the year that flirting with relegation becomes actual relegation and we can wave to them as we go back up.

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  22. You sure about the PSV cut Shamrock? Usually a selling team would get a % of profit not the next total fee so that 3.5 million represents about a 40% cut of profit. That doesn’t sound right to me

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  23. I’m not sure Eric, it going by what the rags say. If it is anywhere near the quoted figures though then we have not made much money at all out of a player that was untested when we signed him, but established and proven in the PL when we sold him.

    He is more productive than Sissy, but the club want £30m us for him but want less for Gini. I don’t really understand the rationale there. Sissy is valued at £11m on base value, Gini at £17m. So why would Sissy go for more when he is less productive? I think Sissy is overvalued by the club and Gini is undervalued.

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  24. The transfer market has gone completely doolally. I have a suspicion it may settle down a bit next year, even though that rarely happens. But bear with me. I think there will be a Brexit recession in the UK next year that even football will not be immune to. Meanwhile, lots of clubs will be spunking a lot of the money from the new PL deal in an effort to remain in the PL. The money is guaranteed as long as they remain in the PL so bankers and/or rich benefactors will front the money.

    But, once the money is spent and every “name” foreigner that doesn’t play for Barca, Bayern or Madrid is bought then where do you go next? Clubs will be relegated and they will not be in the financial shape NUFC are in. I am not saying there will be a crash in the market, more that this is probably the blow off year, or maybe next and then it will settle down.

    Of course, this new China league is the wild card and depending what happens there it might get even more nuts.

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  25. I promise this will be my last word on Ryder and Schteve’s excuse of why we started so **** last year. It was the terrible pre-season schedule you see. We played a mid-table Mexican team, Portland’s second string and Sacramento which is a level lower than Major League Soccer. I would say that should have been a walk in the park, especially given the temperatures were perfect.

    Compare that with Liverpool this year where a heat wave is expected. They have 3 US games against Chelsea, AC Milan and Roma. All in different cities. They return to play Barcelona at Wembley followed by their last game against Mainz.

    I know Schteve made a lot of excuses and Ryder is still in his corner, but can this one be put to bed now?

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  26. Just read in The Chron that PSV have a 20% sell on clause for Gini. These are usually on the profit made and not the total price. I am sure it is some stupid journalist jumping to conclusions and thinking it is 20% of the total price. PSV are probably due about 2 mil which is 20% of the 10 mil profit.

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  27. So apparently we sold Gini for £25m up front plus add ons. If we have to pay £3.5m to PSV that’s a up front profit of £7m. This for a player who couldn’t get in the team when we needed results, scored 11 goals but 6 were in one match and was clearly not interested once it looked like we were going down and performed well once the pressure was off and we were already down.

    Great deal for me!

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  28. Sham: it is Trump’s speech tonight so there may be a few protests. Ohio is an “open carry” state. This means the residents can wear a hand gun in a holster or a rifle on their shoulder. They have stopped it around the convention but there have been reports of residents in other parts of downtown carrying weapons. I doubt any of them were black.

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  29. Let’s think about this logically. We buy a player for 14 million and have a sell on clause of 20%. Who in their right mind would pay out a sell on amount on the initial fee? It guarantees you a loss on the deal if you break even on a sale. No, the sell on must be on profit and it is some idiot journalist jumping to conclusions and the internet taking it as read.

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  30. Looks to me like we sold him for 23 rising to 25. We purchased him for 14.5. As it stands we have made 8.5 raising to 10.5 minutes 3.5, which is a net profit of 5 to 7 million.

    He scored 11 goals in his first season in a pish poor, rudderless side. He is a very good player and his potential is massive, hence why Liverpool have signed him. I think up to 25mil is a low fee and whilst it can be said we had no choice about it, I completely disagree. He is on a long term contract and we should have asked for a fair bit more. Sterling went for twice that price ffs.

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  31. Word on the street is Hanley will only be earning 20k per week. That’s a huge saving in Colo and Saylors earnings.

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  32. Did anyone see on the news about a big fire in Dubai yesterday? Well it was my building. Had a rather interesting day yesterday and today.. Luckily my wife got out ok and called me home from work so we could watch our building burn… ?. Was really bad. Had to stay with friends last night and didn’t get into the building until this afternoon. Had to climb 45 flights of stairs as the elevators are out. We were lucky. Our place was on the front of the bipuilding that didn’t burn. Some of our neighbours lost everything… Fire is a terrible thing…

    On a lighter note, happy to see we have finally got Hanley. We needed a decent defender.

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  33. Dubia Toon
    That’s terrible, are you and your wife ok? And your neighbours of course? Things like that mean we should reassess everything, football is great, good to watch and takes your mind off things, but then when real life goes like that, it’s just horrible. Hope you can get sorted quick and not lost too much. Let’s hope the lads on the pitch can give you a smile this season

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  34. Thanks Simon, we are both ok luckily. Our apt ok too as it was on the other side of the building. Just smells bad now.

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  35. Dubai toon, My best wishes to you all, sounds hellish mate and as you say you were lucky, if a fire can ever be lucky like. Can you live there if part of the building is damaged? what about the structure, isn’t it compromised ?

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  36. Dubaitoon. Glad you and your wife are safe. People are more important than property but not a very nice thing to happen to you at all. Best of luck to both of you. Dubai seems to have a lot of fires in buildings. Are the electrics dodgy?

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  37. Thanks all. Yes Kim, we are able to stay in building for now. They say it is ok, but most elevators still out… There’s been a lot of big fires here recently. You may remember a big one at new year…

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