10 Exceptional Players Newcastle United Should Never Have Turned Down
10. Sami Hyypia
As far as transfer mistakes go, the decision to pass on a young Sami Hyypia wasn't the most spectacular or the most costly in terms of goals or flair, but had Newcastle made the right decision and signed the big Finn on the back of his trial at the club, they could have plugged a considerable gap in defence for a decade. When you consider that the period immediately after the snub coincided with the rise of that awful cliche that the club have never fielded a team capable of defending. Back in 1995, the then 22-year-old Hyypia was invited on loan from MyPa, where he'd been playing since 1992, and though he was already showing signs of becoming the player that Liverpool signed in 1999, Kevin Keegan's team decided against offering him a contract. Unthinkably, he went on to move to Dutch side Willem II, where Liverpool noticed his imposing stature and calm on the ball and snapped him up. The rest was history. To his credit, Hyypia does say Newcastle helped him blossom, even if they were idiotic enough to let him slip through their fingers:
They certainly helped my career, said Hyypi¤. I had a two-week trial in 1995 under Kevin Keegan and it gave me an insight into English football. I was a young player in Finland and I didnt really expect it to lead to anything. I just went for the experience, but it was good experience and I enjoyed my time there. It helped me a lot at the time to see a big English club at close hand and I always look forward to going back."
