10 Former Toon Players Who Returned To Haunt Newcastle

2. Charles N'Zogbia

Charles N'Zogbia is no longer viewed favourably in the north-east, following his ludicrously forced exit from the club five years ago. Feigning outrage at boss Joe Kinnear's mispronunciation of his name in a bid to wrangle a move to a 'bigger' club, the French winger came across as petulant, insincere and highly sensitive in the debacle. As we know from recent incidences, Kinnear does not have a particular gift with the tongue, and will not be hired as a linguist anytime soon, but any mispronunciation was done so out of innocence, not malice or spite. Anyway, if the Aston Villa winger hadn't already sounded out potential employers the previous week, it might have sounded a little more convincing when he played the role of the outraged victim. Once his preferred choices of 'Lyon, Arsenal or Tottenham' failed to register an interest in his services, the arrogant Frenchman settled for Wigan Athletic, still maintaining the charade of leaving for 'ambition'. ''It is a club that has targets and is much more ambitious than Newcastle. I know I was linked with other teams, but if they had really wanted me, they would have managed to make me leave. In his press conference, the manager called me not 'N'Zogbia, but 'insomnia'. It showed a lack of respect, but that's OK. I don't have anything against him.'' - Charles N'Zogbia Jauary 2009. On one hand, N'Zogbia has a point. Wigan Athletic have won a trophy in the last couple of years, as opposed to Newcastle's laughable drought, but on the other hand, they are also languishing in the second tier of English football and are showing no signs of re-emerging. Anyway, when N'Zogbia returned to St. James' Park in October 2010 with his new club, he was inevitably greeted with the jeers, boos and whistles. The perfect way to silence them was by rising above the 6ft 4in frame of Mike Williamson - quite a feat for the 5ft 7in winger - to power home a header for the Latics, before stunning the home crowd even further a minute later by once again evading the towering centre-back to lash home a Franco di Santo cross. Wheeling away in celebration, St. James' Park had been well and truly silenced. Newcastle did rescue a point, however, through late goals from Shola Ameobi and Fabricio Coloccini, but N'Zogbia's deadly brace had helped him to make a long overdue point. Get his name right.