{"id":573711,"date":"2020-12-02T09:56:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T14:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=573711"},"modified":"2020-12-21T20:02:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T01:02:34","slug":"ex-liverpool-goalkeeper-andy-lonergan-joins-stoke-city-on-short-term-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/02\/ex-liverpool-goalkeeper-andy-lonergan-joins-stoke-city-on-short-term-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Liverpool Goalkeeper Andy Lonergan Joins Stoke City on Short-Term Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/165cf989\/Andy-Lonergan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andy Lonergan<\/a> has joined Championship side <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Stoke\" target=\"_self\">Stoke City<\/a> on a short-term deal, as the club continue to deal with a goalkeeper shortage.<\/p>\n<h2>Andy Lonergan Joins Stoke City as Free Agent<\/h2>\n<h3>Lonergan Latest Keeper to Sign For Stoke Following Injury Crisis<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83e\udde4 The Potters have furthered strengthened their goalkeeping resources by signing Andy Lonergan on a short-term contract.<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\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Stoke City FC (@stokecity) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stokecity\/status\/1334135229888520192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old joins Michael O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s side having been released by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/liverpool\/\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> at the end of last season. Stoke have signed Lonergan following a slew of injuries to their goalkeeping options.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/71894777\/Adam-Davies\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Davies<\/a> was ruled out for four to eight weeks, after he picked up a knee injury against Swansea City. Then, on-loan keeper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e082af5b\/Angus-Gunn\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angus Gunn<\/a> suffered ankle ligament damage, which has resulted in a six-week layoff.<\/p>\n<p>20-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/16b6648e\/Josef-Bursik\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josef Bursik<\/a> was then recalled from his loan spell at Doncaster Rovers, while <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/14a96e1c\/Niki-Maenpaa\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Niki Maenpaa<\/a> was signed as emergency cover.<\/p>\n<p>The bad luck didn&#8217;t stop there though &#8211; Maenpaa picked up a hand injury just days after signing for the club on a short-term deal, resulting in Lonergan&#8217;s signing.<\/p>\n<p>Stoke will be hoping Lonergan is able to produce the same durability he&#8217;s shown throughout his career.<\/p>\n<h3>Lonergan Fresh From Premier League Success With Liverpool<\/h3>\n<p>Lonergan spent last season at reigning Premier League champions Liverpool. Despite not playing a single game, manager Jurgen Klopp insisted that Lonergan receive a winner&#8217;s medal. &#8220;If people don\u2019t understand how important the squad is to win the championship then I can\u2019t help them to be honest,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamtalk.com\/news\/klopp-wants-rule-change-andy-lonergan-liverpool-title-medal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klopp said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even if you have zero games you should win a medal, if you are part of the squad you should get a medal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a gesture which Lonergan accepts will live long in the memory. <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.co.uk\/1909505\/2020\/07\/08\/andy-lonergan-liverpool-goalkeeper-alisson-klopp\/?redirected=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Speaking to The Athletic<\/a>, Lonergan remarked: &#8220;It sums this place up. It\u2019s the best dressing room I\u2019ve ever been with.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ll look back one day and probably pinch myself that I was here and a part of it all. That I was part of a really good group.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lonergan is perhaps best known for his goal against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/leicester-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Leicester City<\/a> when playing for Preston North End 16 years ago &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WbtZ4RaJglQ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">when he scored from the edge of his own box.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Y7MYqcrwR2J7KnkMbfdE7g\" 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\/1246173006\" 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:'Y7MYqcrwR2J7KnkMbfdE7g',sig:'e7zdWY3dYrlsf1fEEJ13JLtGGl6yZH4k06t2_N3fd94=',w:'594px',h:'334px',items:'1246173006',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran goalkeeper Andy Lonergan has joined Championship side Stoke City on a short-term deal, as the club continue to deal with a goalkeeper shortage. Andy Lonergan Joins Stoke City as Free Agent Lonergan Latest Keeper to Sign For Stoke Following Injury Crisis \ud83e\udde4 The Potters have furthered strengthened their goalkeeping resources by signing Andy Lonergan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3590,"featured_media":573716,"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":[21,33,28],"tags":[4117,197,1297,126,95,356,1179,136],"class_list":["post-573711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stoke","category-championship","category-transfers","tag-andy-lonergan","tag-championship","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-jurgen-klopp","tag-liverpool","tag-stoke-city","tag-transfer-news","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573711","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\/3590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}