There is no doubt that Kieron Dyer played the best football of his career at St. James Park. Since being snapped up as a 20 year old starlet from Ipswich Town in the summer of 1999 for a fee of £6 million, Dyer went on to play 250 games for the Magpies during his eight seasons at the club, scoring 36 goals in the process. Injury problems dogged his time at the club, however, and he only played more than 30 league games in two of his seasons. Still, his sparkling performances under Sir Bobby Robson earned international recognition, of which he has 33 England caps to his name. If he thought his injury problems were bad at St. James Park, the 28 year old was about to endure the worst spell of his career when he linked up with West Ham in August 2007 for £6 million, signing a four-year deal. However, within ten days of his debut, he was stretchered off after a tackle from Bristol Rovers defender Joe Jacobsen in a League Cup match that left his right leg broken in two places. The England international subsequently missed the rest of the 07/08 season, with many speculating that the injury-plagued midfielders career might be over at the tender age of 28. On January 2009, Dyer made his long-awaited comeback after 17 months out, although he was struck down by yet more injury curses over the coming months, leading West Ham co-owner David Sullivan to unhelpfully comment that he should follow former Hammer Dean Ashton into retirement. The £83,000 p/wk midfielder was released at the end of the 10/11 season, having made just 34 appearances for the club and never having completed a 90-minute game during his four seasons at Upton Park. Indeed, he actually cost the club around £450,000 per match for every game he played in. He has since taken in unhappy spells with Ipswich Town, QPR and Middlesbrough. He lasted just three minutes in his return to the top-flight for QPR in August 2011 before being stretchered off with an injured foot which ruled him out for the remainder of the season. Story of his post-Toon career. Dyer has completed just one full 90 minute games since 2010 - its no wonder nobody wants to offer the bag of damaged goods another shot. So, that's a wrap - what do you think? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.
Recent Journalism & New Media graduate. Insatiable thirst for all things football, and hopes to break into the field of sports journalism in the near future.
Have made a significantly insignificant playing career out of receiving several slaps around the head for not passing the ball.
