Ex-West Brom and Watford star Ben Foster reveals Newcastle United consideration in decision to retire from football

An injury to Karl Darlow meant Newcastle were forced to dip into the free agent market, snapping up former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius to play back-up to Nick Pope.

However, Karius was seemingly not their first choice and even though he has just announced his retirement from football, Foster, on his YouTube channel ‘Fozcast’ explained why he decided to turn down the offer from Newcastle United – despite having personal terms agreed with the club:

“I live in the Midlands and to get to Newcastle by car is about four hours – it’s a bit of a trek and it’s not one you can commute to everyday back and forth.

“Even when I was at Watford I was driving back and forth every day. I’m established in the Midlands. It works, it is perfect for me. This offer comes in and it is Newcastle and genuinely, I’ve gone ‘oh my gosh, this is massive’.

“I kind of that this feeling in me that I didn’t really want to do it just because of the upheaval (of moving away), but if they’re willing to pay me a really good wage it is something you’ve got to respect, simple as that.

“I said a weekly wage that I wanted and Richard said ‘cool, I’ll go back now to Newcastle and I’ll talk to them and we’ll go from there’.

“Deep down I’d hoped they were going to say that (no) because when I heard about Newcastle it was a nice feeling to feel wanted. Since the end of last season I’d had a few offers but non were real Premier League concrete offers.”

Foster then went on to confirm that Newcastle had agreed to his terms but that his gut feeling was telling him not to make the move

"As soon as he (his agent) said this, I had this sinking feeling inside of me because deep down I didn’t want to do it. I would have had to move away from home, that would kill me.

"You know when people say you have to go with your gut feeling, I had a feeling deep down that ‘I just don’t want to do it’.”