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Laurence Taylor (@laurence_1999)
Apr 14, 20207 min read

Some players we forgot signed for Newcastle

Updated: Nov 15, 2022


Another article I've decided to do during this pandemic and this time, we'll be looking at players we forgot signed for Newcastle. We won't be including academy graduates who didn't make many first team appearances before leaving as we'd be here all day, it will be senior players signed from other clubs but hardly played and I won't include Achraf Lazaar or Henri Saivet as they're still on the books here. Anyway, let's have look at some of our forgotten men.

Jesús Gámez

I hadn't heard of Jesús Gámez when we signed him from Atletico Madrid in July 2016 but despite his age, I had a good feeling about him. However, the Spaniard only played ten games in all competitions before being released in June 2018 although given his impressive display in a 1-0 win at Swansea City in his only Premier League start and Javier Manquillo's struggles during the season, I feel he should have had more game time whilst Paul Dummett was injured during the first half of the season, especially when our defence really struggled during a nine game winless run. He's just turned thirty-five and hasn't been able to find a club since leaving us so should probably retire soon.

Jesús Gámez

Islam Slimani

Islam Slimani was one of three players signed on loan in January 2018 and the one I was most happy about yet he was arguably the most disappointing one and more of a panic buy given that he took two months to make his debut due to injury. When he did make his debut against Huddersfield Town, he played a part in the winner by putting pressure on goalkeeper Jonas Lössl when he looked to claim a Christian Atsu cross whilst also attracting Terriers defenders to him, rather than Kenedy, who gave the ball to Ayoze Pérez (also unmarked thanks to Slimani's presence) to score an important winning goal. After missing the 2-1 win at his parent club Leicester City a week later, he came on against Arsenal and won the header for Pérez to set up Matt Ritchie for the winner but after not scoring in his only start as we lost 1-0 at Everton, he was benched again against West Bromwich Albion and ended his loan spell by getting suspended for violent conduct during that game. The fact that he's been loaned out to Fenerbahçe and Monaco since then has suggested that Leicester want rid of the Algerian although he was bizarrely linked to Manchester United in January (then again, they signed Odion Ighalo so was it really bizarre?).

Islam Slimani


Antonio Barreca

Onto another January deadline day loan signing, Antonio Barreca was brought in as left-wing back cover from Monaco on the same day Miguel Almiron arrived from Atlanta United. The Italian had some good touches when he was brought on as an 86th minute substitute in an effort to rescue a point at Tottenham Hotspur two days after arriving but he didn't make another appearance afterwards and was only an unused substitute for games against Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool late in the season. This means he is the only player to only ever play for us at Wembley. In the summer, he went on loan again, this time to Genoa.

Antonio Barreca


Shefki Kuqi

When Andy Carroll left for Liverpool on deadline day in January 2011, Shefki Kuqi was brought in as a stop gap replacement. The fact we sold our top scorer at the worst possible time in the season meant that manager Alan Pardew chose to bring in Kuqi as a short term replacement as we could only sign free agents, the veteran striker didn't score in any of his six appearances and was released at the end of the season whilst the proper replacement for Carroll signed that summer would be Demba Ba and the rest is history. Meanwhile, Kuqi had disappointing spells at Oldham Athletic and Hibernian before retiring in 2013 at the age of thirty-six.

Shefki Kuqi

Dan Gosling

Dan Gosling showed promise in first full season at Everton in 2008-09, including scoring the winner as they knocked rivals Liverpool out the FA Cup but he was released in June 2010 after failing to agree a new contract and we snapped him up following promotion. However, an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered in March 2010 meant his only appearance in his first season on Tyneside was as a very late substitute in a 1-1 draw at rivals Sunderland in January. His second appearance for us also came in the derby and he did have a chance to seal three points for us, only for Simon Mignolet to deny him (but we still won 1-0) and he scored his only goal for us in a 3-1 loss at Manchester City three months later before being sent off in a 4-2 loss at Norwich City three weeks later. He only ever completed ninety minutes in a first team game for us twice and having spent three months on loan at Blackpool in 2013-14, he left for Bournemouth in July 2014, where he has fared a lot better and scored a late equaliser against us in February 2018.

Dan Gosling

Sol Campbell

Another player signed following promotion in 2010, former England international Sol Campbell arrived on a free transfer after a season which saw him make one appearance for Notts County in League Two before joining Arsenal for the second half of the season. During his one season with us, he was accused of being overweight and can be remembered for defensive disaster-classes in defeats at West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City as he looked uninterested. After not being able to find a club in the 2011-12 season, he retired from playing and has been manager at financially wounded clubs Macclesfield Town and Southend United.

Sol Campbell

Lamine Diatta

After a successful trial, Lamine Diatta was signed in March 2008 but only played a total of nine minutes in a win over Reading and a draw against West Ham United before leaving in May so was the trial really successful? Given that it was a Dennis Wise recommendation, maybe it was a sign of things to come between him and Kevin Keegan as the latter didn't seen to be keen on the Senegalese centre-back and preferred the players he already in his position. After leaving us, he failed a trial at Stoke City before retiring in 2012 after only nine more appearances, all of which came at Tunisian club Étoile Sportive du Sahel.

Lamine Diatta

Romain Amalfitano

Romain Amalfitano joined from Stade Reims in July 2012 but during his two years on Tyneside, he played more games for the U21s than he did for the first team. All five of his competitive first team appearances came in the Europa League and after a season, he joined FCO Dijon on loan before signing for them permanently the following summer and he's still there today.

Romain Amalfitano

Curtis Good

Another summer 2012 signing who never made a Premier League appearance for us, Curtis Good joined from Melbourne Heart but given that he was nineteen, I'd probably say this was a signing for the reserve team. However, the Aussie centre-back spent six years with us and only made two competitive first team appearances, both of which were cup ties against League Two and One sides. He looked good in the first of those games - a 2-0 win at Morecambe in the Capital One Cup in August 2013 but was part of the defence that shipped three at Oxford United in the FA Cup in January 2017 in his second game and he eventually left when his contract expired in June 2018. He returned to Melbourne three months later after his former club were renamed Melbourne City but not before scoring in the Premier League International Cup derby for the U23s against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light (a game we won 11-10 on penalties) in March 2018.

Curtis Good

Xisco

Xisco would likely have been completely forgotten about if he wasn't signed at the same time as Ignacio González in 2008 (the signing that led to Kevin Keegan's exit). The Spaniard did score on his debut against Hull City but we tried to sell him in January, only for FIFA rules to block that as he had played for Deportivo La Coruña during the season. He went on loan to Racing Santander after our relegation, where he only scored six goals in thirty games. After returning, he did set up the final goal as Andy Carroll completed his hat-trick in our 6-0 hammering of Aston Villa but was sent off in an U21 derby win over Sunderland shortly afterwards, after returning to Deportivo La Coruña on an eighteen month loan in January 2011, he suffered relegation with them but helped them to promotion in 2012. Despite scored a hat-trick for the U21s against Stoke City in October 2012, he was released in January 2013 and subsequently joined Córdoba. Safe to say he wasn't as good as the other player we signed from Deportivo La Coruña that summer or another addition from the Galician outfit who joined in July 2018.

Xisco

Steve Guppy

Steve Guppy was signed from Wycombe Wanderers for £150,000 in 1994 and only made one appearance for us as a substitute in a 2-0 win over Manchester United in the Coca-Cola Cup. We still made a profit on him when we sold him to Port Vale for £225,000 in November that year. He made it back to the Premier League in 1997 when he joined Leicester City, where Kevin Keegan gave him his only England cap at the age of thirty against Belgium, describing him as "a left sided David Beckham". A late bloomer but definitely nowhere near as good as Beckham.

Steve Guppy



Tony Caig

Tony Caig was signed from Hibernian as third choice goalkeeper in 2003 but never made a competitive appearance for us. He went on loan to Barnsley for a month a year after arriving and left permanently for Vancouver Whitecaps in 2006 but he did return as our goalkeeping coach in January 2017 only to leave five months later for Bury.


I didn't mention Giuseppe Rossi, Ignacio González, Zurab Khizanishvili, Fitz Hall, Patrick Van Aanholt, Stephen Ireland, Facundo Ferreyra or Seydou Doumbia. These lads are all talked about in a previous article I did on our past loan signings after we signed Kenedy in January 2018 (this was written before we signed Martin Dubravka and Islam Slimani).

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