JOHNGIBSON Football is a Krul game but stopper deserves credit

DUTCH KEEPER OWED DEBT OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS LOYALTY

SENTIMENT can have no place when it comes to decision making in the cut-throat world of professional football.

When your time is up then the exit is the only door in the room.

However that doesn’t mean we cannot be grateful for services rendered.

Thank you should be so easy to say to those who deserve our appreciation, like Wayne Rooney with the Manchester United faithful and Tim Krul here at Newcastle.

This week we learned Krul no longer has a future at SJP and was being dispatched to train at the Academy with other senior players Henri Saivet and Achraf Lazaar.

While they have been out-and-out flops at United, Krul has not been.

Over 11 years and 185 games Tim has excelled in terms of his loyalty, consistency and reliability.

When the start of a new Premier League season comes around with United entertaining Spurs, let us pause to recall the day Krul played them on his own at White Hart Lane and brought home a famous victory.

Krul deserves to be remembered with the same fondness and gratitude Shay Given and Steve Harper have rightly been afforded.

All three gave long and loyal service to the Magpies and still carry the club in their hearts.

Dutchman Tim married a Geordie lass and so will remain forever tied to Tyneside.

Injury was cruel to Krul, forcing him to take a lengthy rest in October 2015 when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Holland.

As a consequence he spent the whole of last season on loan at Ajax and AZ Alkmaar, which means he will leave having played his last game for Newcastle almost 22 months ago.

Krul’s first-team appearances have been restricted not only by such a long absence but because he did not t join United as an experienced keeper rather a promising teenager needing to gain experience out of the limelight.

Still only 29, a goalkeeper on the right side of 30 ought to have a long career ahead of him - but we wonder how much that injury has taken out of him.

He has one year left on his contract but Rafa Benitez, having taken the decision to offload his wages, must surely persuade the board to allow him to leave for next to nothing. A gesture is required.

Inevitably footballers, however good, must eventually move on to make way for the next generation – in Newcastle’s case Freddie Woodman, who as a young World Cup winner with England, looks destined to carry on in the considerable footsteps of Given, Harper and Krul.

So let us wave goodbye to Timothy Michael Krul and allow him to take a treasure trove of warm Geordie memories with him.