Nachrichten

Newcastle United’s new signings are getting well acquainted with their teammates following their arrivals at St James’ Park.

As well as making Lewis Hall’s move from Chelsea permanent, Newcastle United have welcome three fresh faces to the club.

Lloyd Kelly, Odysseas Vlachodimos and John Ruddy have all signed for the Magpies, and were part of the group that travelled to Germany for the training camp at Adidas HQ.

It looks like it was a brilliant trip, while Newcastle United fans got the chance to hear from Darren Eales and Paul Mitchell. In fact, Newcastle supporters really liked what they heard from Mitchell, who gave his first interview after being appointed sporting director.

Various team bonding exercises for Newcastle United’s players

While Newcastle’s executives talked business, the players prepared for the new season.

Eddie Howe had them sweating it out in the German heat, while there were also plenty of chances to grow as a group and relax.

The club have released a lengthy video documenting the trip to Adidas HQ, and it looks like the players had a lot of fun. There was swimming, basketball, tennis and bike rides, as Howe’s players did more than just train.

Odysseas Vlachodimos already has a nickname at Newcastle

But training was obviously a key part of the camp, with the Newcastle players being put through their paces.

In the club’s video on their official YouTube channel, the Newcastle United goalkeepers can be seen working hard, as Vlachodimos and Ruddy look to make an early impression.

The former has arrived from Nottingham Forest, as part of the deal that saw Elliot Anderson move to the City Ground. It has been reported that Vlachodimos will challenge Nick Pope for a place in the starting XI, and he has already been given a nickname after less than a month on Tyneside.

At the 1:37 mark in the video, Vlachodimos makes a save. In the background, someone can be heard shouting ‘good, Ody’.

Another creative nickname at Newcastle United… Ody joins Popey and Sandy. Why are they never as innovative as Willockinho?!

How Much Vlachodimos might actually have cost from Nottingham Forest

Regardless of his nickname, Vlachodimos will be hoping to make a positive impression at Newcastle United.

He had his first outing for the Magpies on Saturday, playing the second half in a behind closed doors friendly win over SpVgg Unterhaching. Vlachodimos came on at half time, but was unable to keep a clean sheet as Newcastle won 3-1.

The Greece international’s arrival at St James’ Park came completely out of the blue. There had been no speculation regarding interest from Newcastle, with James Trafford looking set to be the goalkeeper that moved to Tyneside.

But now Vlachodimos is part of Eddie Howe’s squad, and a report from the Athletic suggests that he might actually have been quite expensive.

The Athletic reported this month that Elliot Anderson cost Nottingham Forest £35million, but it will actually be around £15million when Vlachodimos’ move to Newcastle is taken into consideration. So that would suggest that Newcastle actually paid around £20million for the 30-year-old.

That figure is surprising, and it perhaps sums up how creative clubs had to be when they were trying to comply with PSR before June 30th.

Irrespective of the fee, Ody is a Magpie, and will hope to do better for Newcastle United than he did for Nottingham Forest.

Related Topics