During his eight years on Tyneside with Newcastle United, Kieron Dyer made 250 appearances and established himself in the England setup. A mixed 2006-07 campaign had ended on a high too, with the pacey midfielder featuring regularly for the Magpies and playing in two national team matches before the summer. However, the desire to move south to live nearer his family resulted in Dyer signing for West Ham on a four-year deal. His reasons were fully understandable after moving from Ipswich Town at 21 years of age, but it was a transfer that ultimately led to his early retirement. During his third appearance, he broke his leg and never returned until 17 months later. In 2009, he would play 15 times during the calendar year before finally putting a sustained run of games together during the early part of the 2010-11 season. With West Ham keen to get him off the wage bill, however, it was never considered a realistic possibility that he would be awarded a new deal and he concluded that season on loan at Ipswich. In what was as much bad luck as anything else, Dyer was denied the chance to rebuild at Queens Park Rangers after suffering a foot injury just minutes into his debut and it would be another year before he pulled on a first-team jersey. Dyer could not have predicted that leaving Newcastle United would result in such catastrophic injury problems and being closer to his family would have undoubtedly softened the blow, but he left the North-East giants at a time where he had started to get back to his best form after previously suffering issues with his hamstring and he could have been a vital player for Sam Allardyce, who had just taken over at St James' Park. Instead, Dyer would start just 29 matches in the final six years of his career and he never completely fulfilled his potential. He still made a total of 417 appearances during his career and represented England on 33 occasions, but given all of the work put in during his various rehabilitations, he deserved much more.
A degree-educated, dart-throwing, non-smelling sports journalist based in a small Staffordshire town that has just become Floyd Mayweather's answer to the question: "What's the strangest place you have ever visited?"
