Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul completed a temporary move to Brighton on deadline day – and the club’s supporters were furious on Twitter with the decision to let him go.
The Magpies have allowed the 29-year-old to leave St James’ Park on a season-long loan switch to join Premier League rivals Brighton.
The North East club do have several options in goal and are left with Rob Elliot, Karl Darlow and Freddie Woodman following the departure of Krul.
Krul has slipped down the pecking order in recent years and spent time out on loan at Ajax and AZ Alkmaar last season.
The Dutch shot stopper has been with Newcastle for 11 years, but is entering the final year of his contract and will be spending it with Brighton.
Krul has been unable to force his way into the plans of the manager Rafael Benitez this season and will hope to gain first-team football at Brighton.
The goalkeeper will bring a lot of experience to Chris Hughton’s side as he has 157 Premier League appearances under his belt and eight international caps for Holland.
Newcastle fans on social media are frustrated that a player of Krul’s quality has been allowed to join a league rival that they could be battling with this season to avoid relegation.
The supporters have also grown extremely frustrated all summer over the club’s transfer business and one fan described their goalkeepers’s exit as the “icing on the cake”.
This Is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets:
https://twitter.com/DanielB00955238/status/903506218123227136
Why on earth we loaned out lazaar when we had no fit left back is beyond me but why not keep krul aswell?? He will keep Brighton up #nufc
— Cameron manning (@manning_cam) September 1, 2017
Should have kept Tim Krul best keeper we had! CAshley lining his pockets again, ridiculous
— JonY (@Dutchpilot03) September 1, 2017
Watch Tim Krul keep Brighton up ? #NUFC
— Craig Thompson (@CTho33) August 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/Moteyeb/status/903378524903538688
Tim Krul ? #nufc
— Matty Locke (@Mattylocke) August 31, 2017
I really fail to see how loaning Krul to a survival rival is a good idea #nufc
— Charles Crook (@chlcrk) August 31, 2017
Why are we letting Tim Krul join Brighton on loan? Only #nufc would strengthen a rival and not strengthen ourselves #ashleyout
— Glen Ebden (@GlenEbden) August 31, 2017
Benitez has grown frustrated at the lack of signings made this summer and expected to be backed in the transfer market following the club’s promotion from the Championship.
They have managed to get rid of several fringe players and welcome new arrivals Joselu, Javier Manquillo, Jacob Murphy, Florian Lejeune and Christian Atsu to the club.
However, the general feeling is that they have have left themselves short of quality this season and that they could struggle on their return to the top flight.