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Newcastle making move for Peter Gulacsi – Reports

7 years ago
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Monday morning sees claims that Newcastle United are making a move for Peter Gulacsi.

The 27 year old goalkeeper saw his career take off when brought in as number one at Red Bull Salzburg in summer 2013, going on to win the Swiss league in his two seasons there.

He was then moved on in summer 2015 to another Red Bull club, this time Leipzig.

The club were in the second tier of German football and Peter Gulacsi took over as first choice keeper in the second half of the season after injury to Fabio Coltorti, helping them to finish runners-up and get promotion to the Bundesliga.

Backed by the Red Bull cash, Leipzig spent a relative fortune for a promoted club in Germany, forking out over £50m in summer 2016, with another four players moving over from the Red Bull Salzburg side.

The net result being a quite amazing second place in the Bundesliga last season, 15 points behind Bayern Munich but of course getting Champions League football.

Despite that, Leipzig are getting a lot of transfer pressure on some of their star players and ESPN say that their sources in Germany have informed them that Rafa Benitez has made clear he wants to bring Peter Gulacsi to Newcastle.

After missing out on the likes of Cabellero and Reina, the NUFC boss is said to have identified the Hungarian international as the experienced number one that he wants.

Playing 33 of last season’s 34 league games, only Champions Bayern Munich and fourth placed Hoffenheim conceded less goals than the 39 which RB Leipzig and Peter Gulacsi leaked.

To be fair, ESPN are one of the more reliable media organisations and whilst transfer stories will always have a high fail rate, they have been the first with the news on a number of occasions in the past.

There is an extra strand to this one as well, with Rafa Benitez having signed Gulacsi for Liverpool from MTK Budapest when the keeper was 17.

Pepe Reina was number one and the Hungarian goalkeeper went out on a series of loans to Hereford, Tranmere and Hull to get experience, but never managed to get further than the bench for Liverpool. Gulacsi was allowed to leave on a free to Salzburg at the age of 23 in 2013, three years after Rafa himself had left Anfield.

After being linked with very experienced keepers who would cost little or nothing but massive wages, such as Reina and Caballero, this is almost the direct opposite. Peter Gulacsi is at 27 just about in his prime as a goalkeeper and has many years ahead of him and whilst you wouldn’t imagine wages being such a problem, much could depend on what Leipzig are demanding – if indeed Rafa Benitez is interested in taking on the goalkeeper once again.

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