{"id":573327,"date":"2020-11-27T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=573327"},"modified":"2020-12-21T20:02:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T01:02:36","slug":"stoke-city-sign-goalkeeper-niki-maenpaa-until-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/27\/stoke-city-sign-goalkeeper-niki-maenpaa-until-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoke City Sign Goalkeeper Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 Until January"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=stoke+city\" target=\"_self\">Stoke City<\/a> have signed goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/14a96e1c\/Niki-Maenpaa\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4<\/a> on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stokecityfc.com\/news\/2020\/november\/Boss-discusses-M-enp-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">short-term contract until the middle of January.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year old shot-stopper joins the Potters to bolster their goalkeeping ranks following injuries to <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/71894777\/Adam-Davies\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Davies<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e082af5b\/Angus-Gunn\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angus Gunn.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Stoke City Sign Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"ro\">Stoke City can confirm the signing of Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 on a short-term contract.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the Club, Niki \ud83d\udc4d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SCFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SCFC<\/a> \ud83d\udd34\u26aa<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stoke City FC (@stokecity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stokecity\/status\/1332304415122993156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2018Experienced\u2019 M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 Brought in to Plug Stoke City\u2019s Goalkeeper Crisis<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>After losing Davies (knee) and Gunn (ankle) over the last month, Stoke City were forced to recall England U21 goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/16b6648e\/Josef-Bursik\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Bursik<\/a> from his loan spell at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=doncaster\" target=\"_self\">Doncaster Rovers<\/a>. The 20-year old has started the last two matches, backed up by teenagers <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/9b526c28\/Blondy-Nna-Noukeu\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blondy Nna Noukeu<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/d04f6407\/Nathan-Broome\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan Broome.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Approaching a busy schedule and uncertain of when Davies and Gunn could return, manager Michael O\u2019Neill signed M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 as an emergency back-up.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about his decision, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stokecityfc.com\/news\/2020\/november\/Boss-discusses-M-enp-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">O\u2019Neill said<\/a>: \u201cWe are obviously without two senior goalkeepers at the moment in Adam Davies and Angus Gunn.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The situation left us bringing Joe Bursik back who\u2019s 20 years of age, while our other two goalkeepers are 19 and 17 respectively, so it makes sense to bring a senior goalkeeper in on a short-term basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNikki has a lot of experience, and he obviously played in the Championship last season for Bristol City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s come on the basis that if he\u2019s needed to play then it\u2019s good for us to have that senior figure around the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a short-term contract until the middle of January and it suits both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 Brings Four Seasons of English Football Experience<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year old Finn spent seven seasons plying his trade in the Netherlands before joining <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/brighton-and-hove-albion\/\" target=\"_self\">Brighton and Hove Albion<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>After making just one first-team appearance for the then-<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/league-football\/championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Championship<\/a> side, M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 joined <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=bristol+city\" target=\"_self\">Bristol City<\/a> in 2018. He made 26 appearances in his first season for the Robins, helping them to an 8<sup>th<\/sup> place finish, before making a further four appearances last season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"fppMD3riTelHQBXyZl9EpA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1223867336\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'fppMD3riTelHQBXyZl9EpA',sig:'FgbB-bwP2nwZVWYFycwKRbh0rO7M0EQeZJDsKikUMqM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1223867336',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stoke City have signed goalkeeper Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 on a short-term contract until the middle of January. The 35-year old shot-stopper joins the Potters to bolster their goalkeeping ranks following injuries to Adam Davies and Angus Gunn. Stoke City Sign Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 Stoke City can confirm the signing of Niki M\u00e4enp\u00e4\u00e4 on a short-term contract. Welcome [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3531,"featured_media":573334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,1830,21,28],"tags":[3763,2562,197,1297,1765,7110,356,136],"class_list":["post-573327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-injuries","category-stoke","category-transfers","tag-adam-davies","tag-angus-gunn","tag-championship","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-michael-oneill","tag-niki-maenpaa","tag-stoke-city","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}