Rob Elliot admits he was naive to stay at Newcastle

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You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Rob Elliot is still a Newcastle United player.

The goalkeeper arrived at St James’ Park in 2011 from Charlton as backup to Tim Krul. Elliot has played 55 league games during his time as a Magpie, but his last appearance was back in December 2017 against Manchester City.

An injury in that game saw him slide down the pecking order, with the arrival of Martin Dubravka in January 2018 truly signalling the end of Elliot’s time as number one.

Rafa Benitez was the manager and advised him to leave for the sake of his career, which Elliot ignored.

“I made a decision not to go and to fight,” he told the Sunderland Echo.

“That was probably a bit naive from me. Probably because I love the place so much that I wanted to stay and to fight. That was probably a bit naive thinking that I’d have a chance to do that, whereas it was probably more written in stone that I wasn’t.”

While Elliot’s love for the club is great to see, his decision to stay and fight has to go down as a mistake. He’s third choice behind Dubravka and Karl Darlow. Then you’ve got Freddie Woodman who is impressing out on loan at Swansea.

Elliot was always fairly reliable but never outstanding for the Magpies, but does come across as a good presence in the dressing room.

But will he ever play for the club again? Surely not. Darlow played in the Carabao Cup earlier in the season and will probably start in the FA Cup too. Unless one of our stoppers gets injured, Elliot isn’t going to get a look in.

It’s mad to think he’s actually been a Newcastle player for more than eight years now. His contract is set to expire next summer, and it’s hard to see the 33-year-old being offered a new deal.