10 Newcastle Players Who Turned Around A Bad Start

5. Jose Enrique

Sam Allardyce's reign as Newcastle manager was a tumultuous one, in which he was lambasted by sections of the Newcastle support, with choruses sounding out questioning whether the former Bolton Wanderers coach knew what he was doing. Indicative of this were a few odd decisions, such as spending £6.7 million on a left-back and then insisting on playing a winger without a defensive tactic in his head in his place. Indeed, it made little sense to persist with Charles N'Zogbia at left-back, when the club had just beaten Liverpool and Manchester City to the signature of highly-rated Spanish full-back Jose Enrique. It wasn't until Sam Allardyce was given the boot in January 2008 that the 21 year old was given a proper run in the team, where he struggled for form and found it difficult to integrate in the dressing room. ''After my first season, I wanted to go back home. The truth, and no one knows this, is that Newcastle wanted to sell me as well. I had talks with Real Betis. But my brother, Salva, who is also my agent, sat me down and said 'Jose, you have the qualities to play in England. This is the best league in the world.' When I understood this, I started to play well. It was good advice.''' - Jose Enrique, November 2011. Certainly, Enrique improved with each season, and by the time Liverpool swooped for his signature in the summer of 2011, he had established himself as a key fixture in the Toon starting XI, and a firm fan's favourite.