Newcastle United’s James Trafford mishap is even more embarrassing as Man City complete a hat-trick

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Newcastle United must be sick of Manchester City as they pip them to the signing of James Trafford.

All summer, the expectation has been that James Trafford would become a Newcastle United player. There was talk of personal terms being agreed and a deal being close, yet somehow the Magpies are missing out.

Geordie Boot Boys understand that Trafford has rejected Newcastle United in favour of a return to Manchester City, with Pep Guardiola’s side on course to pay around £30million for the 22-year-old goalkeeper.

It is laughable from Newcastle’s perspective, as they miss out on yet another key target. They can now add Trafford to the list alongside Dean Huijsen, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Bryan Mbeumo and Hugo Ekitike.

Manchester City have beaten Newcastle United to three signings in 2025

Incredibly, this is actually the third time that Manchester City have signed a player that Newcastle United have been chasing in 2025.

It all started in January when Paul Mitchell was trying to bring a centre-back to St James’ Park.

Newcastle were close to signing Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens, only for PSR problems to get in the way. Instead, Manchester City signed Khusanov.

It was the same situation with Vitor Reis, who also moved to the Etihad Stadium. Newcastle worked on signing Reis from Palmeiras, only to miss out to Pep Guardiola and co.

That left Newcastle United frustrated, so goodness knows what the mood is like after the Trafford bombshell.

But the Magpies can only look at themselves. They left themselves open to this kind of situation, having taken their sweet time to strike a deal for a player who seemed fully committed to joining the Newcastle United squad.

What Manchester City signing James Trafford means for Martin Dubravka

It had been reported that Dubravka would leave Newcastle United if Trafford joined.

That suddenly felt possible on Thursday when it emerged that Dubravka was not in Newcastle’s pre-season squad for the trip to Asia. That news came less than 24 hours after Dubravka was linked with Burnley as a Trafford replacement.

However, we now know that Trafford is not joining Newcastle United. That means that Dubravka will be remaining at St James’ Park for the time being.

According to the Daily Mail’s Craig Hope on X, Dubravka is now going to fly out and meet the Newcastle United squad for the two games in South Korea.

That comes after the Magpies face Arsenal in Singapore on Sunday.

After that, Eddie Howe’s side face Team K League and Tottenham Hotspur in South Korea. Having initially not been in the squad, Dubravka could suddenly be involved in those games.