VERIFICATED: Newcastle United and a “excellent” Premier League goaltender have reached a formal personal agreement.
Newcastle United gets one step closer to obtaining the star player from Burnley.
Fabrizio Romano reports that Newcastle United and Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford have reached a personal terms agreement. After being relegated back to the Championship, the Clarets may lose some of their greatest players and brightest prospects.
They made money off of Nick Pope, Nathan Collins, Dwight McNeil, and Max Cornet when they were sent to the second division the last time around. Vincent Kompany was able to establish his mark on the team and have a sizable budget because to their transactions. If his replacement is to have the best chance of succeeding at Turf Moor, he will also require a respectable budget, since the Lancashire team will ideally need to bring in some new players after a dismal 2023–24 Premier League season.
The club keeps the great majority of its first-team players, so their one advantage is that they won’t have to rebuild their squad this summer. At the end of this month, Jack Cork and Johann Berg Gudmundsson will be freed; nevertheless, Jay Rodriguez has signed a new contract, Charlie Taylor may stay, and they have signed a few of their former loanees on a permanent basis.
In light of this, the future manager of the Clarets will be free to concentrate on improving the team’s quality rather than its depth. They are now very strong in the goalkeeping department, with options in Trafford and Aro Muric as well as Bailey Peacock-Farrell, whose one-year option for an extension has been activated by the Lancashire club.
James Trafford’s most recent news amid Newcastle United interest
Trafford, who was called up as a member of the provisional Euros team but was dropped by Gareth Southgate, is reportedly a top choice for Newcastle. Additionally, according to Romano, personal agreements have now been reached, bringing the Magpies one step closer to signing the shot-stopper.
They haven’t yet reached an agreement with the keeper, though, and Eddie Howe’s team is expected to make a bid of about £15 million, plus add-ons.
If they sell him, Manchester City will take home 20% of the transfer fee, so the Clarets won’t get all of this money. Given this, it comes as little surprise that the Lancashire club values him at up to £30 million. And this is a story that may take a while to wrap up, as Newcastle is only expected to offer about half of that.
James Trafford will undoubtedly leave Burnley this summer, it feels obvious. It appears that the keeper is eager to leave Turf Moor this summer, since personal details have been agreed upon. Alan Pace, the chairman of the Clarets, will want to create as much as he can for the keeper, but he could be hesitant to get in the way of him because of this.
When the team was previously relegated, Pace did demonstrate a willingness to balance the budget, so it would be surprising if Trafford wasn’t sold this summer for that reason. The Lancashire team probably can’t afford to spend in the market unless they are prepared to let go of a few important players, given they spent a fair amount of money in the previous summer. Furthermore, the Clarets might not be in such a rush to hang onto him because they have Peacock-Farrell and Muric as backup alternatives.
