Jak Alnwick last night backed himself to follow Fraser Forster’s path to the big time after signing on the dotted line at Ibrox.
The Rangers new boy grew up with Forster in the Newcastle United academy before Celtic lured his pal north of the border permanently four-and-a-half years ago in what proved to be a career-defining move.
Southampton keeper Forster is now pushing for the England No.1 shirt and ex-youth international Alnwick, 23, hopes his own reputation can be forged in the Scottish top flight after a £250,000 move from Port Vale.
After signing a three-and-a-half year deal he said: “It’s funny, Fraser was born 30 seconds away from my house and we crossed paths at Newcastle. We grew up in the same village, Stocksfield, and played for the same youth teams.
“If you ask Fraser himself he was a late developer – even through the academy at Newcastle he was nowhere near where he is now. He hit a certain age and kicked on.
“He was a striker at one point and a rugby player and they didn’t know what to do with him because he was so big.
“But he worked hard every day and you would see him in the gym every day or outside practising his kicking. He came up here, did brilliantly for Celtic in the Champions League and got his move to Southampton and got involved in the England set-up. Now I think he will be England’s No.1.
“You look at all the goalkeepers who have been up here – Artur Boruc, Allan McGregor, Craig Gordon, David Marshall and Fraser.
“It proves the clubs up here – especially Rangers, who are a massive, massive club – produce keepers. You’re not going to get forgotten about.”
Alnwick shot to fame in 2014 when he was thrown on at half-time for his Newcastle debut against Chelsea, turning in a match winning display. Now after 18 months at Port Vale he’s looking to challenge Wes Foderingham at Ibrox.
He said: “That was the best day of my life. I made some good saves against some top players. Diego Costa played and my first touch of the ball was to smash him. There’s a good picture of that moment.
“I was up against people I’d idolised and watched on TV every week. It was pretty surreal but I coped with it pretty well.
“Normally goalkeepers go into a game like that with 80 league games behind them. I didn’t
have that experience.
“As an inexperienced goalkeeper I had some very good games, some poor games and some average games. You kind of expect that.
“But at the end of the season I knew I had to leave Newcastle. A lot of people were saying to me I had to get to 100 league games as quickly as you can. I feel 10 times better as a goalkeeper going and getting that experience.
“Dropping down was something I needed to do because coming away from Newcastle I had seven league games to my name – that was it. I knew I needed to go and get the game time.
“Now I’ve done that and this move is a massive step forward in my career. Hopefully I
can be a part of what this club is going to achieve.”