Fabrizio Romano confirms 'short-term contract' for Geordie defender who hasn't played all season

Newcastle United said goodbye to a couple of popular figures at the club during the summer with Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett leaving the club after their contracts expired.

While Matt Ritche found himself a club in time for the new season, heading back to his boyhood club, Portsmouth, Paul Dummett has been without a club since he left Newcastle.

That's about to change for the former Wales international, though as Dummett looks to be heading to Wigan Athletic.

Dummett had been spotted at Newcastle's training ground after the club allowed him to use the facilities to keep fit, Dummett had been linked to a few clubs before the Wigan story broke, including Portsmouth and even Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Paul Dummett - That well known Wigan Athletic fan

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has posted on his X account that Dummett will join Wigan on a short-term contract until January.

Strangely claiming that Wigan is Dummett's boyhood club in the process despite Dummett being Geordie through and through and having only ever represented Newcastle other than loan spells at St Mirren and Gateshead.

But hey, even the best of us gets things wrong from time to time.

Paul Dummett doesn't have long to impress his new club

When we heard that Dummett was signing a short-term deal with the League One side we thought we'd be looking at six months or something, but it's looking more like two months.

That may be all the time he needs to impress his new side and earn a longer deal however.

We're quite honestly surprised it has taken Dummett this long to find another club. While not a top-of-the-table Premier League player, the fact that the 33-year-old has had to drop to League One is a shock.