Newcastle closing in on future England No. 1 goalkeeper

Burnley would have been hoping that their promotion to the Premier League could keep the vultures away from goalkeeper James Trafford, but it appears they’ve decided to give into the interest in the England U-21 keeper.

Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Burnley is in active negotiations to sell Trafford to Newcastle. We’ve also got a nice piece of evidence that this is not simply gossip, with Florian Plettenberg reporting that they’ve already lined up his replacement, Max Weiß from 2. Bundesliga side Karlsruhe.

At this point in his career, Trafford is average with the ball at his feet, but already a top class shot stopper. His passing stats might have scared off Chelsea and Man United from making a bid, but certainly not the team that currently employs Nick Pope as their No. 1 goalkeeper.

Trafford’s shots on target faced from last season make the point about his shot stopping even more clearly. Almost all the goals he allowed were really high post-shot xG efforts, with only one genuinely soft goal allowed in 45 games played. He also saved both of the penalties he faced.

Trafford is currently just a touch above mid at claims, but if I liked my goalkeeper coach, I’d bet on a 6’6” guy who is already a world class shot stopper getting better at that aspect of his game. I’m not sure if he’ll ever be better than average at distribution, but with his ability at actual goalkeeping, I wouldn’t particularly care. At a rumoured £40m, I like this deal for Newcastle.

More transfer rumours

• In other goalkeeper news, Monaco are interested in signing Andre Onana. If United manage to sell him, they’ll turn their attention towards Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi, who I like a lot. We highlighted him in The Chelsea Rebuild last week.

• Here’s a Rodrygo update that I find to be a bit silly. AS is reporting that his £10m wage demand might put Arsenal off the deal. But that’s already below the top end of their wage scale, and I can’t imagine that knocking £1m per year off the salary is going to be the difference in whether or not they buy a £60m player.

• Italian media says Chelsea are willing to sell Nicolas Jackson to Juventus or Napoli, but English media says they don’t want to sell him. Also, Sky’s source called Jackson and Liam Delap “two world class No. 9s” and was quoted verbatim without criticism.

• Barcelona have agreed to personal terms with Nico Williams and is haggling with Athletic Bilbao about fee structure, but Marcus Rashford still dreams of a move to Barca. I’m sad for him, honestly.

• Bayern Munich have been linked to every decent left winger in the world, so why not add Jamie Gittens to the pile?

• AC Milan are literally begging Theo Hernandez to piss off to Saudi Arabia. He is correctly worried about such a move costing him his France place for the World Cup.

• Hey, here’s a fresh Man United striker link. They’ve asked about Fiorentina’s Moise Kean, who would cost about £40m. I like Kean, but he’s a very specific profile. No hold up, no playmaking, no pressing, no dribbling. Only shoot. This guy gets into shooting positions and shoots the ball. So basically, The Anti-Zirkzee.

—KM

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