Our new Sporting Director Ross Wilson hasn’t even been in his role for a week and he’s already got a big list of important tasks ahead of him.

The top priority for the former Nottingham Forest man will be sorting out the contract renewals of some of our biggest stars, namely Sandro Tonali, Sven Botman and Tino Livramento.

But in a positive sign, Wilson looks to already be hard at work, with one key squad player already committed to another year on Tyneside amidst doubts about his long term future.

It is a bold decision from the club however, and a potential sign that a couple of other players won’t be at St James’ Park next summer.

Contract extension confirmed

According to Sky Sports’ Keith Downie, Nick Pope has taken up the option to extend his current contract by a further year.

The 33-year-old’s deal was due to expire next summer, but his contract will now be up in 18 months time, at the end of the 2026/27 campaign, now he’s triggered the option to extend.

Pope has been one of Eddie Howe’s most-trusted players ever since his arrival from Burnley, and it looks like he’ll now spend the rest of his playing career here on Tyneside.

He is unlikely to get into the England squad anytime soon with some intense competition against Jordan Pickford and Dean Henderson, but he’s now a key part of our squad and appears to be settled in the North East.

With Pope now nailed down for another year, it’s been reported that Wilson will now move swiftly along to securing extensions for each of the aforementioned Tonali, Botman and Livramento.

What does this mean for Ramsdale and upcoming goalkeeper search?

Had Pope seen out his old contract this season and left in the summer, alongside the other keepers with dwindling deals in Mark Gillespie and John Ruddy, there could have been a situation where Odysseas Vlachodimos was the only senior goalkeeper on the books once he came back from his loan move to Sevilla.

The Pope extension doesn’t look to be good news for Aaron Ramsdale: the Southampton loanee has just a single competitive appearance for us, and you’d fancy Pope to be brought into the Carabao Cup side for the big game against Spurs at the end of the month.

This does invite the club to have another year of preparing for Pope’s immediate successor between the sticks, having seen our plans to sign James Trafford to be that player scuppered this past summer.

A move for Trafford still really can’t be ruled out either: he’s been so easily displaced by Gianluigi Donnarumma at Man City that he’ll be desperate to secure high-level first team football anywhere in order to keep his own England hopes alive.