10 Newcastle Players Who Really Weren't Worth The Hassle

8. Albert Luque

The 05/06 season was supposed to be magnificent. The summer of 2005 had been a spending splurge. Following the club's dismal 14th place showing under Graeme Souness, the Scotsman shipped out the deadwood, before signing a host of talented footballers. Eerily similar to this summer, the floodgates were opened, as eight new players put pen to paper at St. James Park, with a total outlay of £38 million. Unfortunately, out of those incoming, only the returning Nobby Solano and the 17 year old goalkeeper Tim Krul can be counted as successful acquisitions. Albert Luque was most certainly a dud. Having chased Fulham winger Luis Boa Morte for most of the summer, Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd cast his eye at the Spanish international who had been part of the plucky Deportivo la Coruna side who had reached the Champions League semi-finals the year previously. At £9 million, the signing proved an undignified disaster. He lasted just two years at the club, during which time he spent most of it on the treatment table. Having mustered 21 appearances for the club, he never managed to add to his solitary goal against the Mackems, and was shipped out to Ajax in the summer of 2007. The validation of his transfer from Deportivo was even scrutinised by the Stevens inquiry report, published in June 2007, 'relating to possible payments made by agent Francis Martin, who Newcastle officials believed was working for the selling club'. An Iberian headache, indeed.