10 Players Who Stole A Living From Newcastle United

9. John Karelse

Another absolute winner from Ruud Gullit's time in charge of Newcastle along with Marcelino, square-headed Dutch goalkeeper John Karelse is the epitome of a wage-stealer thanks to his dismal appearance record - which was wholly justified by his inability to look anything like a goalkeeper at all. Despite having both Shay Given and Steve Harper at the club, Gullit showed his usual knack for ignoring his first-team choices and brought the Dutchman in from NAC Breda for £900k, having presumably seen something in his near 400 league performances for the Dutch side. Apparently, whatever that was, Karelse left it in Holland, as he proved on his debut against Southampton: given the chance to play thanks to Steve Harper's injury, Karelse was beaten four times in an abject performance that left Newcastle fans wondering quite who he was and why we'd spent a million on him. Next game, Karelse leaked three goals before being justifiably dropped by Gullit - who resigned himself a few weeks later - and found himself in no man's land under Sir Bobby Robson. Unconcerned by getting to play only one more game under the Geordie knight, Karelse stuck around, with rumours that he was great in the dressing room, and basically picked up a wage (probably high given Newcastle's inability to regulate their spending under Freddie Shepherd) for being a nice lad. That would never happen under Mike Ashley.