One can't get much more diverse than being compared to Coco the Clown and Bobby Moore during their stint at a club. For Fabricio Coloccini, that just encapsulates how much he has improved since his disastrous debutant 08/09 season. One can only assume there are two versions of the Argentine centre-half whom Mike Ashley shelled out £10 million to acquire from Deportivo la Coruna in the summer of 2008. There is the bumbling, error-strewn 'defender' that was consistently taken to the cleaners by pacey forwards for the best part of nine months. Essentially Boumsong in a wig. On the other side of the spectrum, is the polarizing opposite - the classy, composed and assured ball-playing centre-half worth every penny of that sizeable investment six years ago. Coloccini is the fulcrum of the club, one of the few constants in a club so bereft of stability. He was even named in the 2012 PFA Player Team of the Year, proving his undoubted class. Rewind back to that first season, and Geordies could barely watch his wretched displays through their fingers. Turning in a particularly abject display in a 5-1 home mauling by Liverpool, Kinnear's 'Mr Reliable' was lambasted by certain sections of the public. Indeed, the incoming Alan Shearer dropped the Argentine international for a crunch match with Stoke City in March, which highlighted just how much of a hit his profile had taken during his troubled debut campaign. Today he sits as Newcastle captain, with a host of accolades, having been compared to Bobby Moore in the immediate aftermath of a Tyne-Wear derby, and caused frantic panic within the Toon camp when he signalled his desire to return to his native homeland last year. It's fair to say Coloccini has turned it around.
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.
