10 Most-Pointless Newcastle Signings In The Premier League Era

6. Stephen Ireland

Newcastle United: 2011 Nationality: Irish Position: Midfielder Signed: January 2011 Fee: Loan (from Aston Villa) Appearances (Goals): 2 (0) The less said about Stephen Ireland's time on Tyneside the better. A player who could quite adequately be described as a "mercenary" arrived from Aston Villa on loan in January 2011 but he managed to make just two Premier League appearances for the Magpies due to injury and serious loss of form. Alan Pardew brought in Ireland hoping that the midfielder could rediscover the previous good form he had shown while at Manchester City but Ireland simply didn't appear interested to apply himself. Consistently injured and used only fleetingly, Ireland's loan spell was not made permanent - much to Newcastle supporters' relief.