OFFICIAL: Nick Pope joins Newcastle from Burnley on a four-year deal

We reported the unofficially official deal yesterday, and it’s now happening for real as Newcastle United just published an announcement of the signing of former-Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope with the Magpies for the next four seasons.

The figure Newcastle United will pay Burnley is still unknown, but it’s said to be on the low end of the scale. Pope, who had one year left in his deal—with an option to extend it for another one—with recently-relegated Burnley, is signing a four-year contract with NUFC.

A few days ago, David Ornstein, from The Athletic, reported the offer and the agreement on a fee in principle between both clubs. Italian reporter Fabrizio Romano, as well as other voices of the interwebs chronicling football and Newcastle-bound developments also had commented on this deal getting completed soon a few days ago. It’s now official.

The signing of Pope follows the departure of long-time Magpie Freddie Woodman, who is joining Preston on a permanent deal as Newcastle made the move official on Tuesday. It makes sense from that point of view, and it would have done without actually selling Woodman either because the Toon had prioritized signing a keeper anyway throughout the summer transfer market.

Nick Pope comes as an England international with eight caps to his name, and as part of the most recent Three Lions contingent to challenge at the Nations League games played earlier this month. Pope, 30 years old, breaks the assumed philosophy of bringing young players with upside, but he’s a solid player projected to provide competition to current starting goalie Martin Dubravka.

This signing is the first one that Dan Ashworth took a big part in completing. Eddie Howe was the man asking for a secondary/primary reinforce at the GK position, but he didn’t have to enter the negotiations with Nick Pope himself once the former Burnley ball-stopper was identified as the club’s main target to add this summer. Other options such as Alphonse Areola, Dean Henderson, and Keylor Navas were explored but never materialized for one reason or another.

With Matt Targett secured and Nick Pope’s ink still to dray on the paper, that makes it two additions for Newcastle ahead of the 2022/23 season and, most importantly, of the start of the training camps come July 1.

Speaking for the first time as part of the Toon Army, Pope had some exciting words to share with the fans out there.

“Now I’m here, I can’t wait to get started.”

“The deal has taken a couple of weeks to come to fruition but it got over the line really quickly, and I’m delighted to be here and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it.”

Coach Howe also gave his two cents about what he expects and how he views Pope contributing to the team.

“Nick is an exceptional Premier League and international level goalkeeper so I’m very pleased to be adding strong competition to a very important position.”

“There has been a lot of interest in him from other clubs this summer, so I’d like to thank our owners and everyone behind the scenes for getting us ahead of the competition.”

“I’m delighted he is joining us as we prepare for the exciting challenge ahead.”

We can’t wait to watch Nick Pope blocks all of the shots fired at him, literally and figuratively, next season.

Welcome home, Pope!