Newcastle Goalkeeper Rob Elliot Insists Club Is No Longer a 'Stepping Stone' for Top Players
Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot has insisted that the club is no longer a 'stepping stone' for ambitious players.
The Magpies have made an excellent start to the Premier League season, sitting in sixth place with nine games played having won promotion from the Championship last campaign.
And Elliot has stressed that these are 'exciting' times for everyone involved with the club.
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“This club is definitely not a stepping club any more, and it should never be,” he said, quoted by the Sunderland Echo. “Those days are gone now. The players here are all young, all hungry, but most importantly they are all wanting to play for this club.
“Last year, players left the Premier League to come and play for this club in the Championship, and that shows the size of us and also the fact the manager is here, the age of the players coming in.
“They’re here to develop and get better and take the club forward. We’re now in the top half of the league, and we can keep developing that, not just for this season, but hopefully for more to come.”
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Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, an unpopular figure at the club, looks set to leave in the near future, and Elliot has admitted that he and his teammates are looking forward to the impact of a potential takeover.
“There’s obviously interest, which is exciting for everyone,” he said. “Hopefully, someone comes in who can take the club forward, which will be great. Hopefully, it’s a great thing for the club all round, so the club can kick on.
“The infrastructure is fantastic. As players, we can’t do a lot about it, we just watch the telly and read the papers like everyone else, but we just hope everything works out for the club, because we’ve been through a lot these past few years.
“But there’s now a positive vibe around the place, and we’ve got to make sure we continue with that. “We want this to be a long term thing, where we’re always looking forward and not back.”
