10 Players Who Didn't Fulfil Their Potential At Newcastle

3. Albert Luque

Former Deportivo winger Albert Luque signed for Newcastle United back in 2005 for a pretty high fee of £9m. He had notched up an impressive 26 goals in 101 appearances for the club before signing for the Toon Army and this had most of Newcastle buzzing with excitement. Unfortunately that excitement quickly wained. Yet another man on this list who seemed to be struck with a curse of Tyneside, he spent most of his two seasons at The Magpies on the physio table as well. After debuting against Manchester United, he was stretchered off in his next game against Fulham with a hamstring injury and proceeded to spend most of the season on the injury list. He did eventually make it back into the squad and scored during the 4-1 demolition of Sunderland in the Tyne-Wear derby that season, but that was his last involvement until after the summer break. In his next season, he once again failed to find form. This once heralded prospect had fallen down into the dumps and found himself behind the likes of Matty Pattison (now playing for Bidvest Wits in South Africa) in the pecking order. In June 2007, new manager Sam Allardyce said he was going to give Luque a chance to impress, and then promptly let him go to Ajax in August. Luque retired back in 2011 aged 33.