10 Newcastle Players Who Turned Around A Bad Start

9. Leon Best

Let's be honest, Leon Best didn't pull up any trees during his time on Tyneside. Having recently been shown the door by Blackburn Rovers following a ridiculous total of two goals in two Championship campaigns, it's perfectly clear that the 27 year old has never been true Premier League quality. At Tyneside, he didn't fare much better, with just ten goals in 30 months at the club. Which begs the question, why on earth does he make this list? Well, it's pretty simple. For a striker, one couldn't hope for a worse start at a new club than when Leon Best penned a three and a half year contract in February 2010. Failing to dislodge either Andy Carroll or Peter Lovenkrands from the starting line-up, the profligate forward failed to find the net in 13 Championship appearances. It took Leon Best an entire year to score for the club, during which time Toon supporters began to give up on the former Coventry City striker ever producing anything of note in black and white. However, with Andy Carroll having jumped ship to Liverpool, Best stepped up to the plate and hammered in a hat-trick against West Ham on his first Premier League start for the club. Confidence breed goals, and vice versa, as Best shocked a bemused Geordie faithful by finishing the season with six goals in ten starts for the club. He managed to bag four during the next campaign, as he slipped behind the likes of Demba Ba, Shola Ameobi and Papiss Cisse, but it was still a commendable turnaround for a player who couldn't buy a goal for over a year.