10 Underwhelming Newcastle Signings Who Became Cult Heroes

3. Joey Barton

Is a football club ever too enamoured to sign a footballer with a rap sheet longer than his list of sporting achievements? For a 24-year-old footballer to have already committed the list of offences he had was impressive in a masochistic way, but certainly not an advertisement to sign him. This was a man whose most recent misdemeanour had been to punch a Manchester City colleague into an unconscious state, detaching a retina in the process, during a training ground bust-up.

Not exactly the sort of player Toon supporters were salivating at the mouth for, having had to endure troubled brats for the best part of a decade. To his credit, Barton did eventually prove the sceptics wrong, but it certainly took a while. Spending time behind bars for beating up a 15-year-old six months after penning a contract at St. James' Park only increased the furore and vitriol surrounding his time on Tyneside, with many calling for his immediate sacking.

The club stood by him, however, and he eventually repaid their faith with hard-working forays in the Championship - having had a falling out with Alan Shearer during the club's dismal relegation campaign - before eradicating his nightmarish beginnings in their first seasons back in the Premier League, producing stellar performances from the right wing.

He may not ever get his own statue at St. James' Park, but Newcastle United is one of the few clubs that won't spit putrid vitriol and bile at the Huyton-born troublemaker when he togs out in his QPR gear for Premier League match-days.