10 Most Expensive Newcastle Transfer Flops In History

8. Marcelino

A sore finger is the kind of excuse a feeble and tyrannised schoolchild would spin to dodge out of a P.E lesson, not that of a Spanish international footballer. Ruud Gullit squandered £5.8 million, a princely sum for a defender in 1998, to sign Marcelino after he impressed at during three seasons at Mallorca and there were high hopes for him on Tyneside as he arrived with the reputation as a 'hard man'. But the wimpish centre-back managed just 17 appearances in five years at the club as he regularly cried off with a creative array of injuries - the legendary snapped finger tendon, for which he sported a sling, kept him out of action for two months and came to define his time at the club - before being eventually shipped out by Sir Bobby Robson in 2003, post-haste.