A Ruddy good bit of business - The art of the veteran goalkeeper

Scott Carson at Manchester City. Tom Heaton at Manchester United. Willy Caballero at Chelsea. It’s a common theme across English football’s elite.

There will always be room for invaluable experience and knowhow at the bottom of the goalkeeper pecking order. Enter one of Newcastle’s most recent arrivals, John Ruddy. Whilst hardly a deal that will set pulses racing on Tyneside, the deal represents a shrewd and low risk bolstering of experience and maturity within the Magpies’ squad. The veteran English goalkeeper, who made his debut for Cambridge United all the way back in 2004, offers Eddie Howe’s side a de facto goalkeeping coach.

Ruddy will join a goalkeeping department that already includes the homegrown fourth-choice option Mark Gillespie. The Geordie, whilst not as vastly experienced as Ruddy, exists primarily to account for registration rules and ticks a box in Newcastle’s squad list. Howe has also hailed his work behind the scenes and character.

Even at the advanced age of 37, Ruddy has more than held his own at the Championship level over the last few years. Despite the side being relegated into the third tier last term, Birmingham City could rely on the veteran shot stopper as a first team regular, making 87 league starts during his two-year spell at the club.

But Eddie Howe and the club have not given this signing the green light due solely to Ruddy’s performance between the sticks. He will likely not see much if any Premier League gametime at Newcastle, signed in large part to replace the outgoing yet seldom seen Loris Karius (best of luck in the future, Loris!). For comparison similar figures such as Carson and Heaton have made little to no inroads into their respective first teams. Carson played only 90 minutes of Premier League football for City whilst Heaton could only find action for Manchester United’s PL2 affiliate side. These signings, clearly, are based on far more than gametime. Experience sells.

So while many fans have been quick to question or even deride Newcastle’s signing of the veteran Ruddy, I see it to be an especially intelligent and shrewd pick up by the club’s recruitment team. Ruddy is several years Karius’ senior, and has spent his entire career toiling in English Football, a trait that will serve Newcastle well in their domestic aspirations. In a crippling PSR-driven landscape, the signing makes so much sense financially, and provides the club with a savvy leadership voice without breaking the bank. It should be through this lens that the Ruddy addition is viewed. We may not see much of him on the pitch, but it will be his behind the scenes that will make this move an important one.

Significantly too, the free additions of both Ruddy and fellow goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from Nottingham Forest leave room for Newcastle to finally begin to make some larger and higher profile signings as the summer moves on. The club will still be searching behind the scenes for at least a right winger, another centre back and a couple more options to lead the line.

(Appearances/Stats taken from fbref.com)