Aaron joined Newcastle United in the madness of the summer 2025 window.

In the year or so previous United had manage to collect a raft of goalkeepers, both planned and unplanned. The madness began in the previous summer, when, to satisfy PSR, United signed Vlachodimos from Forest as part of a deal that took Elliot Anderson in the opposite direction. The 'reciprocal' deal certainly saw Forest benefit from a player perspective with Anderson going on to gain a full England cap whilst Vlachodimos played just once for Newcastle.

Then add the Dubravka situation. A player who was on the cusp of leaving in the winder of 24/25 only to stay and help Newcastle in their ultimately successful League Cup campaign and in the league following an injury to first choice keeper Nick Pope. Then there was John Ruddy and Mark Gillespie. It had all turned into a little bit of a farce.

The summer of 25 would finally see a little tidying up done, although clearly not the long term solution. Even this tidy up would be decent into a farce. Newcastle had been chasing young England keeper James Trafford all summer, only to see themselves gazumped by Manchester City at the last minute as they seemed to promise him their nr 1 spot. In another mad goalkeeping twist City would then go on to sign Gigi Donnarumma from PSG in the last moments of the summer deadline day. A penny for James's thoughts!!

For Newcastle it would be out with Vlachodimos (loan) and John Ruddy (released). And in with Aaron Ramsdale from recently relegated Southampton (loan).

Aaron had something of a back story. Widely seen as a star of the Arsenal team that saw him win 'Goalkeeper of the Year' in the Premier League in 2023. But Arteta and Arsenal wanted more of a 'ball playing' keeper and Aaron was pushed to number 2. A £25m move to newly promoted Southampton would follow, but the would be sent straight back down and Aaron unable to save them from relegation that season.

A chance therefore at Newcastle? A chance largely spurred.

With the loss of form of Nick Pope during the season (there had always been limitations to Pope's 'ground' game but something was just not right with the Cup winning keeper all season), Aaron would get ample opportunity to prove himself in both the League and Champions League.

But a number of mistakes when he was between the sticks put paid to any prospect of him being retained long term, and he was shipped back to Southampton in the summer of 2026.