Nick Pope recalls ‘mad time’ when Burnley had three England international goalkeepers on their books
During the 2018/2019 season, Pope, Joe Hart and Tom Heaton all battled it out for the number one jersey – albeit Pope was sidelined through injury for much of the campaign.
Nevertheless, when the 31-year-old did take part in training he was understandably wowed by the quality on show.
Speaking to Ben Foster on his podcast ‘Fozcast’, the current Newcastle United stopper said: “There were actually five of us, because we also had Anders Lindegaard – he played for Manchester United in the Champions League – and then Adam Legzdins, who played a load of games for Derby, and so on. There were five of us walking out every day.”
When asked if there was a pecking order, Pope added: “A little bit, but it wasn’t set in stone.
“I just remember we’d do shooting from outside the box with quite a lot of serving and the standard was unbelievable.
“There were no younger lads dollying it to you or hitting a slow one wide or a slow one over the bar.
“The ages of us…I must have been 26 or maybe 25, it was 29, 30, 31, 34 or something like that, it was proper goalies, so the standard was proper top drawer.
“You came to the weekend and then only one of us is playing, so it was a mad time.
“Everyone in the training ground knew it wouldn’t last forever, there would be an evolution in the summer.”
Pope also spoke of his surprise when Hart, now at Celtic, arrived as a new signing at Gawthorpe completely unbeknown to him.
“He’s an unbelievable trainer and an unbelievable goalie,” he added.
“He came to Burnley for six months originally, although he did two years in the end, but when he came I had done my shoulder.
“I hadn’t heard he was coming in and I just remember walking into the canteen and seeing him and you just think ‘oh no, what’s Joe Hart doing here?! Has he come for the day?’
“I knew we were going to sign someone, I just didn’t expect Joe Hart to walk in.
“I’m already staring down the barrel of six or seven months without playing football so you’re not worrying too much about playing at that point. I had nerve damage so I couldn’t move my fingers, so I was just worried about that, not the fact he was in the building.”
Pope, who cites Heaton as one of his biggest inspirations, also revealed some humorous stories of his former colleague while at Burnley.
“I love training with him. He’s a great person to learn off day in, day out,” he said.
“Attitude, commitment to training, the way he trained, on a match day as well…his mindset was one that influenced me because he was top, top.
“When you say his name I just laugh because of the things I’ve seen. Say you’d be doing 11v11 and the manager stops it, he’s chatting to the back four, the middle two or the wide men or something, Tommo would be down the other end, he’d stand in the middle of his goal – I can see this clear as day – he’d take two steps and spring to the top corner. There’s no ball, no-one’s watching, he’s just practising his dive into the top corner.
“I watched him doing it hundreds of times, but I never tried it. He’d do other mad stuff as well, when left to his own devices, he’d pretend a striker was running through on goal and he’d spread himself as wide as possible and slide into them.
“When you’re watching it from 100 yards away it’s amazing. I’m just smiling. The other lads would cotton onto it and think ‘oh he’s at it again’.”
