Newcastle have shown interest in signing ‘impressive’ 30-year-old who has played for England

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Newcastle United have previously shown interest in signing 30-year-old Premier League player who recently made a return to the England team.

Nick Pope’s injury against Manchester United has left Newcastle in a tricky position with Martin Dubrvaka showing in his recent performances why he is no longer a starting goalkeeper in the league.

A new report from The Athletic has revealed that Newcastle had looked at Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone as they continue to look to resolves their goalkeeping issues.

Newcastle targeting a new goalkeeper in January

While there is not a lot of money to spend in next month’s transfer window, Eddie Howe has identified three areas in which he wants to improve the squad with a new goalkeeper being one of them.

Dubravka’s recent performances have been poor even for his standards and questions have now been asked about whether or not they can persist with the Slovakian until the end of the season.

Johnstone only signed for Crystal Palace in 2022 and has played in all of their games so far this season showing ‘impressive‘ form, so it does seem like they’d be unwilling to do a deal, but interest from Newcastle’s side is certainly there.

With Johnstone having just worked his way back into the England team for the first time in two years, however, it’s difficult seeing him wanting to join Newcastle only to be made second choice once Pope returns.

Newcastle can do better than Dubravka

Although he’s been a good servant to the club in some difficult times, Newcastle and Howe have to be more ruthless going forwards and that starts with taking Dubravka out of the team.

Even if it means giving Loris Karius a run out it has got to be a more beneficial decision than continuing to put faith in Dubravka who has been very poor in between the posts so far this season.

The 34-year-old has conceded 14 goals in seven games and now faces an incredibly difficult challenge of trying to keep Liverpool out on New Year’s Day.

There’s little option currently for Howe as the market is not yet open, but they certainly should be keeping an open mind when it comes to exploring for a new shot-stopper.