Dubravka Making A Move?

After being left out of the match squad against Tranmere, Martin Dubravka looks to be on his way out of Newcastle.

Although the official reason for his absence was that Dubs “felt ill” his absence raised eyebrows among Newcastle fans. It had long been thought that Dubravka would be demoted to back-up keeper as Nick Pope would be the first choice and the question was asked if the Slovakian International would be happy playing second fiddle.

There was always going to be at least one goalkeeper moved on this summer and many suspected it would be Karl Darlow, however, news has broken that Newcastle are in talks with Manchester United over a loan deal with an option to buy.

Manchester United official proposal to Newcastle for Martin Dubravka is for loan move until June 2023. Just been told it also includes buy option clause discussed between the two clubs, around £5m. 🚨🔴 #MUFC

Newcastle will decide soon – while Trapp decided to stay at Eintracht. pic.twitter.com/tUOnbDYYvi

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 25, 2022

This is such a head-scratcher for many reasons. Why would Dubravka leave a club to being relegated to bench-warming status to join another club to fill the same position? It’s unlikely that Dubravka will usurp David De Gea as the first choice so this is a sideways step at best and given the look of the trajectory of both clubs, could now be seen as a backwards step.

Secondly, what are Newcastle doing playing nice with Manchester United after all their silly games with the Jesse Lingard and Dean Henderson deals? Asking for a £15m relegation bump in any deal for Lingard in January, and then constantly increasing the price for Henderson only to let him wander off to Notts Forest a couple of weeks later. Granted, both things worked out in the end as Lingard isn’t really pulling up trees at Forest and we got Nick Pope over Henderson, but it’s the principal of the thing.