Newcastle United to Manchester United transfer questioned as Magpies star tipped to leave

Former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has tipped Newcastle United goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to attract transfer interest following his performance against Portugal on Friday evening.

The 34-year-old made 12 saves as Slovakia lost 3-2 to the 2016 winners. Former Magpies target Goncalo Ramos opened the scoring for Portugal before a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo cancelled out David Hancko’s goal for the visitors.

Dubravka is yet to make an appearance for Newcastle this season and Skrtel believes that shows “how good” the club’s goalkeeping department is. No.1 Nick Pope has played every Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup game so far.

“I think how good Newcastle United’s goalkeeping unit must be when a goalkeeper like Dubravka is a number two,” Skrtel told Sport 24 SK. ”He gave an incredible performance, moreover, without match practice and he is even sick. Those interventions, the confidence in them...”

Dubravka was the Magpies’ undisputed No.1 up until Pope arrived from Burnley last summer. As a result, the Slovak pushed to join Manchester United on loan for the 2022-23 campaign but made a swift return to St James’ Park in January after being limited to just two appearances.

“I don’t want to say that it was a bad move, transfers to such clubs happen once in a lifetime and he wanted to try it,” Skrtel said. “However, he left as one and returned as two.”

Despite Dubravka’s return, Pope has remained first choice which has restricted the former Sparta Prague man to just three competitive outings in 2023.

And Skrtel reckons other clubs will be taking notice of Dubravka’s situation.

“A goalkeeper with such qualities as he has deserves to catch, whether it will be in Newcastle or somewhere else,” he continued. “I am convinced that the match against Portugal was watched by many agents, coaches and officials, and Martin Dubravka’s name was written down in many notebooks.

Dubravka has made 133 appearances for Newcastle in total since arriving in 2018.