11 Players Newcastle Fans Wrongly Thought Were The Future

2. Nile Ranger

When you look back at Nile Ranger's Newcastle career and the numerous controversies and lunatic moments that came with it, it's hard not to wonder why the club persisted with him, or indeed why fans took so long to turn on him permanently. But the problem was that he was genuinely a major prospect when he signed. He'd been released by Southampton after being locked up, but was a product of the same hugely talented Academy that developed Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and Callum Chambers, so he was always going to be well worth the risk Dennis Wise took in signing him up. Yes, he was a bad boy, but naughtiness could be forgiven if the talent was big enough. And so it proved in his first year, as Ranger quickly scored 20 goals for the youth teams before being awarded the Wor Jackie award the same year that he came to the club. The rise to the first-team was as inevitable as calls to give him a chance from fans who saw his Reserves goal record, but Ranger let his attitude and off-field behaviour ruin any and every chance he had of being a Newcastle hero.