Chelsea looking at second Newcastle goalkeeper — report

Time to add another name to the (backup) goalkeeper shortlist: Newcastle United’s Karl Darlow.

He joins loaned out teammate Tim Krul on the rapidly dwindling list of targets, with Diego Lopez ruling himself out yesterday and Celtic putting the kibosh on the whole Craig Gordon thing — Chelsea supposedly submitted a £2.5-3m bid, but that was never going to fly (but Gordon just might get a nice new contract out of it, so good for him).

Anyway, Darlow. The 26-year-old Englishman started the season as the backup but has done quite well since big-money summer signing Matz Sels was dropped. With Newcastle on course for promotion, there’s no real incentive for Darlow to leave — especially right now — though the Magpies might be proactively looking to clear a possible goalkeeper logjam.

The Guardian’s Ed Aarons claims an £8m fee, which isn’t too unreasonable for a homegrown backup goalkeeper. A name to remember for the summer, probably, then.

Here’s Darlow padding his stats last weekend in a clip you may have already seen.