Newcastle United secured our place within the FA Cup fourth spherical with a win in opposition to Bromley, however after the sport consideration swiftly turned again to switch rumours.
Though there’s not been an excessive amount of exercise thus far, there’s nonetheless quite a bit happening behind the scenes and Eddie Howe is as soon as once more having to reply the media’s burning questions.
One participant particularly whose future stays up within the air is Martin Dubravka, who appeared to have stated his goodbyes to the Newcastle crowd in opposition to Arsenal with a transfer to Saudi Arabia within the works.
Nonetheless, with a transfer for James Trafford seemingly delay till the summer time and Nick Pope nonetheless out, Howe is unwilling to let go of the Slovakian so simply having watched out for enhance dramatically with him in aim.
The boss claimed that the 2 of them have had conversations about his future and that he’s hopeful that the 35-year-old would even signal a brand new contract along with his present one expiring in the summertime.
After the Bromley sport, Howe stated: “Touchwood I hope he’ll keep and I don’t suppose that may change.
“We’ve had discussions, in fact, about his future, however I feel we’re very relaxed. He’s by no means stated he’s needed to go away.
“He’s having fun with being within the crew, he’s having fun with the second the crew’s in. So I don’t count on any main announcement.”
“I hope he’ll keep and hope, probably, that we will agree a brand new contract – however that’s not one thing I’m coping with at the moment.”
Whereas Newcastle’s kind has seen a giant turnaround for the reason that change of goalkeeper, Dubravka has not often been examined by the opposition and as we noticed final season when Pope was injured his shot-stopping leaves quite a bit to be desired.
Sure, the improved distribution is clearly a giant issue, however like we did with Miguel Almiron we don’t wish to make the error of permitting somebody to signal a brand new deal just for their kind to utterly change and be unable to maneuver them on.
Nobody is suggesting we should promote him now , however at his age it looks like the proper time to both promote now for a really small price or permit him to see out the remainder of the season earlier than leaving without spending a dime in the summertime.