Top Ten Newcastle transfers – When the Magpies got it wrong

Over the years when Newcastle were in the Premiership they spent their fair share of money on expensive players, many of whom failed to cut it during their time at St James’ Park. As a Newcastle fan on more than one occasion I remember thinking, ‘why did we spend so much money on this waste of space?’ Poor signings often led to managerial sackings as well, with the Magpies employing ten different managers in the past 15 years, including 2 spells by Kevin Keegan. Here I have a look at the ten worst signings by Newcastle during their time in the FA Premier League, and there was certainly tough competition for places on the list:

10: Carl Cort – The tall striker made a promising start to his career at Newcastle after his £7 million move from Wimbledon in 2000. After a goal on his home debut against Derby and a decent scoring record in his first couple of months with the Magpies, he was just hit by a string of serious injuries and never managed to stay fit long enough to earn a first-team place. Cort has to be a prime example of what it means to be injury-prone, and his spell at Newcastle illustrates how injuries can ruin a footballer’s career. In his 4 years at St James’ Park he only managed to make 24 appearances and scored 8 goals, coming in at a miserly average of 6 games a season.

9: John Dahl Tomasson – The Danish striker caught the eye in 1997, scoring a number of goals for Heerenveen as well as Denmark. Newcastle snapped him up and although he was obviously a quality player, he could never turn it on at Newcastle and his spell in the North East was a nightmare for him that led to missing out on a place in Denmark’s 1998 World Cup squad. Perhaps the problem was that the Magpies tried to convert him from an attacking midfielder into a striker, but a perceived lack of effort meant he often found himself sitting on the bench. After just 1 season in the Premiership he returned to Holland, managing only 3 Premier League goals.

8: Michael Owen – Newcastle shelled out a massive £16 million for the England striker in 2005 and he was paraded in front of excited fans at St James’ Park. But the tide quickly turned, and Magpies fans were soon ruing the day that the past it striker signed for the club. Hit by injury after injury including a serious one at the 2006 World Cup, Owen hardly wore the famous black and white stripes in his 4 years at the club. To be fair to the England striker, when he did make it onto the pitch his strike rate wasn’t actually that bad, but when Newcastle really needed him at the end of last season he looked uninterested and couldn’t prevent them from being relegated.

7: Fumaca – Newcastle somehow managed to sign a Brazilian who couldn’t actually play football. Comments from Newcastle fans hardly cover the player in glory, with statements such as ‘the only player able to fall over the ball when trying to trap it’ and ‘unable to take a first touch’ the memories they have of Fumaca. Having seen him play reasonably well in Germany, Newcastle probably thought that they were on to a good thing. But after playing for Barnsley and Crystal Palace, Fumaca made it to Newcastle where he played just 6 games and was dubbed by fans as Formica, with some claims that he didn’t even make the grade at Carlisle, let alone the Toon.

6: Hugo Viana – Sir Bobby Robson could be forgiven slightly for signing the Portuguese midfielder, as Viana had a good reputation when he signed for Newcastle in 2002 having been named the Young European Footballer of the Year. But a fee of around £8 million always looked risky and it certainly didn’t pay off, as he never settled in the Premiership and the style of play in England didn’t suit him. No-one could doubt his passing ability, but the creative left-footer always seemed to want too much time on the ball and was often forced off it. Viana played 39 league games in 2 seasons for the Toon, before going on loan to Sporting and in turn permanently to Valencia.

5: Stephane Guivarc’h – Kenny Dalglish signed the French striker on the back of his performance as a lone striker in the 1998 World Cup, where France won the tournament. Added to his goal scoring record in Ligue 1 with Guingamp and Auxerre, Guivarc’h looked like he might be a decent player. Costing the club £3.5 million, Guivarc’h managed to score a goal on his Premier League debut, but only played a further 3 games and was quickly sold by new manager Ruud Gullit. His performances were so uninspiring, that earlier this year the Daily Mail named the French striker as the worst forward to ever play in the Premiership, not exactly a glowing reference.

4: Titus Bramble – Arguably Robson’s worst signing, Bramble signed in 2002 for £6 million from Ipswich. The defender had a knack of looking comfortable for 89 minutes, and then inexplicably making an error that would cost Newcastle the match. Whether this was a sliced clearance, a poor tackle or even an own goal, Bramble seemed to lose concentration and his mistakes outweighed all the good work he had done previously. The odd solid game was hidden amongst all his poor performances and after 5 seasons at Newcastle and over 100 Premier League appearances he moved to Wigan where he annoyingly is showing much better form.

3: Jean-Alain Boumsong – The French defender signed for Rangers on a free transfer in 2004 and 6 months later Souness decided it would be wise to spend £8 million on him, which raised many people’s eyebrows. He looked to have some of the attributes to a good defender, but it turned out that the Premiership was far too tough for him. Boumsong was completely out of his depth and provided many comical moments for other fans around the country. For some unknown reason Juventus paid over £3 million for him, but the lowlight of his embarrassing Newcastle career was his miss kick against Liverpool followed by him pulling the striker down and getting sent off.

2: Albert Luque – Newcastle have Graeme Souness to blame for spending £10 million on this waste of space. Signed from Deportivo in 2005, Luque came with the tag of being one of the best players in La Liga and made an encouraging debut against Manchester United, but the hamstring injury he suffered in his second game against Fulham was a sign of things to come. When he wasn’t on the treatment table he looked completely off the pace, never living up to his price tag and his transfer was even investigated by the Stevens Inquiry for illegal payments. At least he scored against Sunderland, but after 2 seasons and 21 Premiership games he went to Ajax.

1: Marcelino – The Spanish defender was signed by Ruud Gullit in 1999 and was hardly a bargain at £5.8 million. A lot was expected of Marcelino after he impressed during his time in Spain with Real Mallorca, but that expectation quickly turned to a realisation that the Magpies might as well have thrown their money down the drain. He completely bottled it at Newcastle, spending a countless amount of time on the sidelines for injury after injury, most notably being unable to play for months just because he had a broken finger. In 3 years in the North East he played just 20 games in all competitions and was released in 2002 after becoming a joke.

With two Spaniard’s at the top of the list maybe Newcastle should steer well clear of them in the future, although Jose Enrique is performing well this season. There were so many players to choose from for this list that flops such as Andreas Andersson, Silvio Maric and Christian Bassedas couldn’t even find their way on here. But out of those players selected, is there anyone who feel doesn’t deserve to be on the list and are there any other flops you think deserve a top ten spot?