10 Embarrassments That Made Newcastle A Laughing Stock

8. Signing Shefki Kuqi

The decision to sell Geordie striker Andy Carroll to Liverpool in January 2001 was very much a mixed bag - there wasn't quite the wailing in the streets that met the sale of Andy Cole or the departure of Kevin Keegan, but there was a lot of anger, even if Liverpool were proved to be the chumps who spent too much on him. The problem was that Newcastle didn't leave themselves with enough time to replace the striker - allegedly going after Thierry Henry on loan and attempting to hijack Fulham's move for Bryan Ruiz - despite Alan Pardew's very public attempts to say Carroll definitely wouldn't be sold for that reason (among others). The end result was that the Magpies were forced to head into the free market and gave a contract to Shefki Kuqi, last seen at Swansea and Derby not really scoring. It was a ridiculous waste of time, and the suggestion that he was Carroll's replacement was ludicrous.