Souness' 'Rotten' Team? Where Are The Rejects Now?

By Neil Brock
December 13 2005

In part one of a three-part feature, Neil Brock will take a look at the players who left Newcastle during the summer and how their seasons have shaped up so far.

In my last column I wrote a fair bit about the luck we were missing, and it certainly looked like the pendulum finally swung in our direction this Saturday evening against Arsenal. The reversal in fortunes between that game and the first game of the season were startling; a dodgy red card and Wenger will surely be crying all the way from St. James to the Fly Emirates stadium next season.

But back to our luck, and what better place is luck more evident that signing players? Okay in fairness, it’s more about having a half-decent scouting system and not signing a player either through watching a video, or a word into the ear from a George Weah impressionist (Souness are you listening?)

Over the past ten years we’ve had a mixed bag of players come in and depart with varying levels of success. For every Shearer there has been a Maric, for every Albert a Marcelino. And for every Andreas Andersson that comes in and disappears into obscurity, there’s a Jan Dahl Tommasson who goes out and makes it big in the European game.

Now we know of the players that have come in this season, how Emre and Parker have impressed, how Solano has yet to be the crossing demon he was in the past, and how Luque and Moore have been tormented by injuries. But what of the players going the other way? What of the players Souness earlier this week labelled part of a ‘rotten’ squad that he inherited?

We’ll start with a player who has a place in every heart of Newcastle fans…Nicky Butt. Mind you, when I said ‘heart’ I actually meant Wor Jackie’s ‘little black book.’ And that would be Charlton’s book, not Milburn’s! Anyway, back to the point…

Now when Nicky Butt was signed to replace Gary Speed, some thought we had a midfield enforcer that would help protect a somewhat vulnerable defence and win the ball back at every opportunity. Now I can’t say I was his biggest fan in the first place; one half decent World Cup when practically all the players around him failed to perform isn’t my idea of how to create a football legend. But the lack of effort and ability in a player, typified by last seasons FA Cup semi-final meant he was clearly holding a one-way ticket to obscure-ville. Otherwise known as the Midlands.

Signed on loan (we’re all crossing our fingers it’s permanent sooner rather than later mind) by his old buddy Steve Bruce, Nicky Butt had the opportunity to prove all his doubters are wrong, force his way back into the England set-up and perhaps do the impossible, make Birmingham not finish mid-table. I’d say one out of three for Nicky; they’ll probably get relegated instead.

We’ll swiftly move onto another player who had one season of great expectation with Newcastle. A man we all thought could take the club up to another level, but instead just helped Sir Bobby into the retirement home, Patrick Kluivert.

Clearly he was a striker with real pedigree, one of the greats from the world-renowned Ajax youth system of the early 90’s and went on to play for two of the most famous clubs in the world, AC Milan and Barcelona. But instead, by the time he reached us, we got a player still evidently suffering from personal problems. A bad attitude mixed with rumours of continuing drinking binges meant we got an out-of-shape striker not up to the arduous work-rate of the Premier League.

11 goals in 31 games (many as a substitute) doesn’t look that bad of a record, yet even with all the talent he clearly possessed, he never looked like he wanted anything more than a stopgap in his career. Finally, after a season of discontent, the club said he was released, whilst Kluivert’s agents said he had a get-out clause and both parties were happy to be apart.

Valencia signed him on a free and it would appear his problems have only continued. Despite the club having a decent start to the season and currently lying in sixth, Kluivert has scored only one goal in 14 games. His international career lies in tatters, and many observers believe it is only a matter of time before he returns to his homeland to end his career.

The final player I’m going to look at is one who has had a much happier season since leaving for pastures new. Darren Ambrose was signed in March 2003 for £1m and labelled by Sir Bobby Robson as a decent young prospect. Like many ‘prospects’ Ambrose spent much of his time on the subs bench, and when he was deployed it was often as a wide midfielder, as opposed to his more familiar central role.

After making 56 appearances, Charlton made an offer for the Under-21 international in the summer, and to the surprise of many fans, Newcastle accepted an undisclosed bid (thought to be near 1.5m) and signed for the London club. This season he has clearly flourished under Alan Curbishley’s guidance, and with Danny Murphy’s pinpoint passing, has already scored 4 goals and continually pushed into advanced positions. Even so, he clearly thought he was still playing for Newcastle first game of the season, that red card would have got a thumbs up from Dyer and Bowyer, especially against Sunderland...

So that’s three so-far, in the next part I’ll be looking at how Aaron Hughes, Hugo Viana and the mercurial Frenchman Laurent Robert have found this season so far away from St. James.