Newcastle United offer contract extension to invisible man - Best job in the world

There's no getting away from the fact that Newcastle United's squad is not as strong as it needs to be and it's about to get even weaker.

There are a few players set to leave the club at the end of the season as their contracts expire, one of which is third-choice goalkeeper Loris Karius.

That already creates one hole in the squad, but we'd be amazed if Martin Dubravka is still on the books at the start of next season too as he's set to be dumped back down to second choice when Nick Pope returns from injury, and let's be honest, he's hardly covered himself in glory this season as Pope's stand-in.

So that's likely two goalkeeper slots that will need to be filled before the season gets underway.

Newcastle have offered an extension to forgotten man Mark Gillespie

Have no fear though, because according to Craig Hope, the club have taken up the option to extend Mark Gillespie's contract for another year.

What do you mean "who?".

The 32-year-old Geordie has literally the best job in the world. As a lifelong Newcastle fan he gets to train with the team he adores and never actually has to play and he gets paid for the privilege.

Mark Gillespie has made just three appearances in four years

Gillespie has been at Newcastle for almost four years and has made just three competitive appearances for the Magpies, all of which came in the Carabao Cup in 2020/21 in the wins over Blackburn, Morecambe and Newport County.

He's apparently one of the favourites in the dressing room though, so that's good. At this point, there is only Dan Ashworth who is currently getting paid to do less by the club.

We wonder if he will get a bump up to third-choice 'keeper next season rather than Howe bringing in two more goalies and keeping him at number four. The poor lad must be itching to get a game and to be honest, we're quite keen to see what he can do. Can he really be worse than Dubravka?