Newcastle United Transfers: Every Graham Carr Signing Ranked Worst To Best
Transfer genius or lucky devil?
After almost seven years at the club, Graham Carr - widely recognised as the driving force behind Mike Ashley's rigid transfer policy of signing cheap, young, sellable assets - has left Newcastle United. Over that time, the Head Scout and key transfer player helped oversee close to 50 incoming signings, from loans and frees to eye-catching, big-money deals that were - at best - a little inconsistent in success.
There are generally two schools of thought on Carr's tenure: he was either a man working to the best of his ability, working under huge, reductive constraints that often meant that the lists of transfers he suggested were approached from the bottom up. Or he was a lucky devil given an eight year contract for being a yes man.
Whatever the case, he was instrumental in forming several Newcastle United squads, and the best way to assess what he brought - and what Newcastle may miss now that power has apparently been handed over to Rafa Benitez - is to look back over every deal he cut and ranking them.
Laid out like this, some of those deals make horrifically damning reading for Carr and his paymasters, but it's fair to say he also oversaw a few masterstrokes...