Newcastle United have recently signed Loris Karius on a short-term deal to cover the injury to Karl Darlow, but it turns out we almost had a former England ‘keeper come in.
Former Watford goalkeeper, Ben Foster goes into detail on his latest podcast about how close he came to signing for Newcastle last week before eventually deciding to retire, dedicating the first 20 minutes of the podcast to the story.
For anyone who watches the Cycling GK YouTube channel or listens to his Fozcast, Ben Foster has often spoken very highly of Newcastle, often naming St James Park as his favourite place to play. His own experiences, coupled with glowing references from his former team-mate and ex-Newcastle stopper, Rob Elliot, made Newcastle’s offer a very tempting one for Foster.
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Ben says in his Fozcast that he received the call that Newcastle were interested in signing him for the remainder of the season, but given all of the upheaval it would cause him, Foster quoted them a silly figure for his contract, hoping that the decision would be taken out of his hands, however, he underestimated how desperate we were, and his terms were agreed to.
It got to the point where his hotel was booked and he’d been given his itinerary before the reality sunk in and he realised that he felt like it was time to retire. But being the legend he is, he didn’t just go through his agent to relay the bad news, he personally rang Dan Ashworth to tell him he was backing out. Foster went on to praise Ashworth claiming that he is a “gold tier” chief executive and any club lucky to have him will go on to do great things.
Personally, I’m a bit gutted that Foster chose to retire over joining the Toon for a year, especially as his videos would have given us an exciting inside look at what goes on at the club, but at 39, it’s hard to deny the man his retirement, I mean, I’m 40 and I need to give myself a five-minute warning before I get off the couch.
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