Newcastle United are on the hunt for a new goalkeeper for next season following some big errors from Nick Pope recently. Pope’s errors have seen him lose his place in the starting lineup to on-loan goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, but it seems the former Arsenal man hasn’t done enough to earn a permanent move, as things stand. If there were a way to combine the two into one goalkeeper, taking Pope’s shot-stopping and Ramsdale’s calmness under pressure and distribution, we’d have a decent goalkeeper on our hands. Unfortunately, a gene splicing lab isn’t part of the current setup at Benton, so the magpies are going to have to try and buy a new No 1 in the summer.

Three goalkeepers recently linked

James Trafford’s name remains in the mix after his return to Manchester City quickly turned sour when Pep Guardiola moved to bring in Gianluigi Donnarumma shortly after. Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen is another goalkeeper who has been mentioned as on Newcastle’s shortlist, as has RC Lens’ Robin Risser, who is now attracting interest from Tottenham Hotspur. The France Under-21 international has kept 10 clean sheets in 27 games this season, which is exactly the type of statistic Newcastle has been missing this season.

Newcastle have edge on Spurs in Risser race

A report from Football Insider claims that Newcastle lead Spurs in the race for the 21-year-old as they seem more likely to qualify for European football. Despite the source, which is dubious at best, we do feel there’s some legitimacy to the claim as Newcastle have had their eye on Risser for a while, with Sky recently revealing our interest in the Lens star. If we’re being honest, it’s not Europe that Spurs need to be worried about next season, it’s whether they’ll be in the Premier League. We can’t be sure what the priority order is for Newcastle’s current goalkeeper targets, but we’d imagine that James Trafford will be high on the list, given we’ve tried to sign him twice already and he is likely to be available once again this summer.