Nick Pope reveals the Newcastle United player that ‘sold’ the move to him

Nick Pope has revealed a conversation with Kieran Trippier helped persuade the goalkeeper to join Newcastle United.

The 30-year-old became the club’s second senior signing of the summer on Thursday for an undisclosed fee from recently-relegated Burnley.

Pope put pen to paper on a four-year contract at St James’ Park, where he will rival Martin Dubravka for the No.1 jersey.

Eddie Howe was keen to make it known that the Magpies had saw off competition from elsewhere to land Pope.

And it sounds as though Trippier played a key role in getting Pope to Tyneside when on England duty together a few weeks ago.

‘Agent’ Trippier

“I spent a couple of weeks with Tripps only last week,” Pope told NUFCTV.

“I asked him a few questions and he was telling me everything about the lads in the dressing room, the atmosphere home and way, the manager and what he’s brought to the club.

“It was something he really sold to me. He spoke incredibly highly of everything that’s going on.

“It’s great to be here. It’s a deal that has happened quite quickly but I’m pleased to get it over the line.”

Pope, capped eight times by the Three Lions, made over 150 appearances for the Clarets, twice winning their player of the year award.

The likes of West Ham United, Fulham and Nottingham Forest had reportedly shown interest in Pope, so why Newcastle?

Why join Newcastle?

“Everything about the club,” Pope replied. “It’s ambitious and is taking steps in the right direction. It’s something I’d loved to be apart of.

“This club maybe underperformed in the past a little bit and we’d like to perform better.

“The ambitions are there to really go to the next level. That’s something that is really exciting.

“I don’t want to put a limit on it (ambition). We don’t want to settle for anything, we want to push ourselves to see what we can achieve.

“We’ve got some high quality players here, a high quality manager and a support that is unmatched. Why limit ourselves? It’s important to have that open mindness and ambition to go as far as we can.”