David de Gea is reportedly open to signing with Newcastle. The former Manchester United star is currently a free agent after departing the Red Devils in June. The Magpies could be searching for a new goalkeeper after their number one, Nick Pope, suffered a significant shoulder injury at the weekend.
Pope suffered the setback in a fairly innocuous way. The shot-stopper made a seeming routine dive to his left in an attempt to make a save in a matchup with Manchester United on Saturday. However, the 31-year-old England international landed awkwardly on his shoulder. He was forced to be substituted off of the pitch with just a few minutes remaining on the clock.
Newcastle won the match but are now potentially without their star goalkeeper for an extended period of time. Backup Martin Dubravka entered the fray for Pope in the final moments of the aforementioned game.
Pope could miss multiple months with shoulder injury
After the match, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was obviously thrilled with the result, but understandably worried about his goalkeeper. “That’s the disappointment on the night,” Howe stated when asked about Pope’s injury. “Nick looks like he’s dislocated his shoulder. Such a strange thing, really, because he’d have made that dive thousands of times.”
“It looks like maybe the arm has just kept on going, maybe on the moist floor, and his shoulder has come out of his joint. We’re going to have to seek specialist opinion and then see what happens, but it doesn’t look good.”
Should Nick Pope require surgery, he may miss four months of action with Newcastle.
Howe then avoided speculating how long he would be without his No. 1. “Too early to say (a timeframe),” continued Howe. “He was in pain when the shoulder was out of his joint. It’s gone back in now and he feels better but we’ll seek a specialist opinion. It doesn’t sound good.”
Pope previously suffered a similar shoulder injury while with Burnley back in 2018. The goalkeeper was sidelined for nearly six months then, missing 34 combined matches for the Clarets and the England national team.
De Gea will have to take pay cut to join Newcastle
Following the bad news on Pope, reports began to surface in England regarding a potential Newcastle move for De Gea. On Tuesday, ESPN then claimed that the Spanish goalkeeper would be interested in joining the Magpies. De Gea previously picked up the Premier League Golden Glove award just last season. The trophy is given to the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets during league play.
Despite the award, Manchester United parted ways with the star for multiple reasons. De Gea was earning around $470,000 per week at the Red Devils. The club wanted the goalkeeper to take a salary cut to remain with the team. While De Gea was willing to adjust, the two sides could not agree on a final number.
United boss Erik ten Hag also preferred a keeper who was better at playing the ball with his feet. In turn, the Red Devils spent over $50 million to bring in Andre Onana from Inter Milan. The Cameroon international has not exactly played exceptionally well so far this season with his new team.
De Gea is currently training regularly and is willing to sign with a team if the move feels right. Nevertheless, the Spaniard would most likely have to agree to a significantly lower contract than what he was receiving in Manchester. The highest-paid player for the Magpies is Bruno Guimaraes. The dynamic midfielder currently rakes in around $200,000 each week.
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