The 8 Newcastle players who are out of contract at the end of 2024-25
Liverpool aren’t the only club sweating over the futures of some of their most important players – Newcastle United have no fewer than eight players out of contract at the end of season, including some of Eddie Howe’s favourites.
The Magpies’ post-takeover rebuild could soon hit another phase, with a number of experienced, long-serving players approaching the end of their current deals.
Here are the eight players who are into the final years of their contracts at St. James’ Park.
Sean Longstaff
This one’s not a matter of urgency.
While the homegrown local lad is technically into the last year of his current contract, a three-year deal signed back in 2022, Newcastle have the option to extend it for another year.
It’s been widely reported that the club have every intention of triggering the clause, although no official announcement has yet been made. And Longstaff himself is tight-lipped about where he sees his future.
“Yeah, if it’s here it’s great. If it’s not, it’s not,” the midfielder told reporters in November.
“I want to be valued as a player, I want to be appreciated as a player and whether it’s here great. If it’s not here and it’s somewhere else, it’ll be somewhere else.
“In a way I live day to day, game to game and I just try and take in every game.
“I get to go to work every day and spend it with my best friends, I don’t know what’s coming ahead, I don’t know what’s coming down the line, I just try to embrace every day and enjoy every minute because ultimately it won’t last forever.”
Callum Wilson
On the one hand, it’s great that Newcastle United have a proven Premier League goalscorer as an alternative to Alexander Isak, given how often the star striker is injured.
On the other, it’s less than ideal that Wilson is even more injury-prone. He’s mustered just 57 minutes of first-team action this season and, for that reason, you imagine Newcastle will let him go.
“I’m not thinking about it, to be honest.” Wilson told reporters.
“You can only focus on the current situation – the first and foremost was getting fit, from there you build on that, stay fit, score your goals and then it’s down to the club on how things progress and like I say, as a striker you score goals and get yourself longevity don’t you?”
Unfortunately, Wilson has just suffered a new injury that will reportedly keep him sidelined for another two months. The prospects of him earning himself a new deal before the end of the season look increasingly unlikely.
Fabian Schar
Another key cog from the pre-takeover era, Schar remains one of the first names on the teamsheet. Like Wilson, he signed a one-year extension running to 2025 last season, but question marks over his future are once again reemerging.
“I feel really comfortable at Newcastle, I’ve been playing for years and I have a coach who relies on me. Everything is right for me. I would love to stay. The club and the coach know what they have in me,” Schar told 4-4-2.
“Basically, things have always gone relatively quickly in recent years. The club wanted to keep me, I wanted to stay. That’s why it was never a big deal.”
Jamaal Lascelles
Still club captain, the lesser-spotted Lascelles is younger than both Wilson and Schar but he’s been reduced to a more peripheral role in recent years – partly due to falling down the defensive pecking order, partly due to injuries.
An ACL injury has kept the centre-back out of action since March and it remains to be seen whether he’ll return before the end of the year. With Sven Botman also expected to return soon, it appears unlikely that Lascelles will play much of a role in 2024-25.
Besiktas have been mooted as one potential destination for the defender.
READ: Where are they now? Newcastle’s 3 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015
Emil Krafth
Another defensive option currently sidelined, a broken collarbone suffered in training will keep the Swede out of action until 2025.
He signed a one-year extension last season but it remains to be seen whether another is forthcoming.
The club’s failed pursuit of Marc Guehi in the summer demonstrates that they’re open to investing in new defenders. Should they get one through the door in January you imagine they’ll offload one or two of their existing options come this summer.
Martin Dubravka
Aside from that loan to Manchester United that was as weird as it was pointless, Dubravka has appeared perfectly happy to sit on the bench and serve as Nick Pope’s deputy in the twilight years of his career.
The Slovakian has his shortcomings, which were exposed in a spell between the sticks last season, but it doesn’t appear as though upgrading their No.2 is near the top of the club’s priority list.
It wouldn’t be a major surprise to see him make way for summer signing Odysseas Vlachodimos at the end of the season, though.
READ NEXT: 9 former Newcastle players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Eddie Howe has used at Newcastle?
Mark Gillespie
Another ‘keeper, Gillespie has made a grand total of three League Cup appearances since returning to his hometown club back in 2020.
The 32-year-old signed a one-year extension at the end of last season and is once again playing the role of back-up to the back-up.
John Ruddy
Newcastle signed the veteran on a one-year deal following the departure of Loris Karius.
It would be a surprise to see him play any minutes for the first team and it’s not hard to see him using this time as a third or fourth choice ‘keeper to transition towards a post-retirement coaching role.