5 Awesome Newcastle United Captains (And 5 That Sucked)

4. Yohan Cabaye

Naturally, there was only one viable candidate to take over the armband from Fabricio Coloccini after the Argentine centre-back was stricken by injury during the 4-2 victory over Southampton in February 2013. And Jonas Gutierrez wasn't the name on the lips of the Toon faithful. Many supporters theorised that Cabaye would be handed the captaincy in lieu of Gutierrez, who'd already deputised for Coloccini beforehand, after becoming an influential figurehead in a largely Francophile dressing room and it was a deduction that proved to be accurate when Alan Pardew installed him as our temporary leader for the next match at Swansea. The swaggering France international skippered us in 11 games during 2012/13 but it quickly became apparent that he didn't have the mental strength to cope with the elevated authority that comes hand-in-hand with the captaincy. His influence from the centre of midfield rapidly decayed and the armband seemed to weigh increasingly heavy upon his arm as the level of expectancy on his shoulders became too much to bear. So we weren't surprised to learn that Cheick Tiote had been given the vice-captain duties for the 2014/14 campaign in his place, although we suspect that Cabaye was secretly pleased.