'I wish him': 34-year-old Newcastle man urged to find a new club by former international teammate

Newcastle United 'keeper Martin Dubravka has been urged to find a new club as he's seemingly unable to break into the first team.

Martin Dubravka has yet to make an appearance this season for Eddie Howe's Newcastle, but is still the first-choice for Slovakia.

Following the departure of Karl Darlow this summer, who moved to Leeds United, Dubravka secured his place as second-choice at Newcastle behind Nick Pope who has made that number 1 spot his own since he arrived from Burnley for £10million last season.

When Pope arrived at Newcastle, Dubravka ended up moving to Manchester United on loan seemingly not happy with being bumped down the pecking order. Ironically, Dubravka's move to Man United didn't bear much fruit either in terms of game time and as such he cut short the loan move and returned to Newcastle in January.

It was a move that cost him a spot in the starting XI at Wembley as his two appearances for Man United came in the Carabao Cup which meant he was unable to take his place between the sticks in the final as Pope was suspended. Due to being cup-tied, Dubravka had to miss out on the game and Loris Karius deputised the England keeper, although Dubravka did pick up a winner's medal on the day, so swings and roundabouts eh?

Now though, Dubravka is the perennial benchwarmer, although in a couple of games recently where Dubravka could have started, such as the Carabao Cup tie with Manchester City, he was nowhere to be seen in the squad.

After Slovakia's 3-2 defeat to Portugal this weekend, former Slovakia international Robert Vittek has told sport24.pluska.sk that Dubravka should look to move on to find regular football.

“With his performance against Portugal, he certainly caught the attention of several interesting clubs. If he doesn’t get an opportunity at Newcastle, I wish him to find a club in January where he will play regularly.”

Personally, I don't think losing Dubravka in January would be a big deal at this point, as long as we could bring in another 'keeper. We know Loris Karius can do the job should we need him, it's just a case of having someone who can fill the bench spot if we were to lose Pope or Karius.

Dubravka has been a fantastic servant for Newcastle, and he's had some outstanding moments for us, but he's never going to usurp Pope and he's still good enough to be a number 1 somewhere, so why not let him go and find that?