8 Newcastle Stars Who've Played Their Last Game For The Magpies

7. Shane Ferguson

It will be four years since Ferguson made his Newcastle debut at left-back in a League Cup second round tie at Accrington Stanley in August 2010 with his first Premier League start against Wolves in a 4-1 victory at St James' Park coming the following April. Witnessing the pencil-thin Northern Ireland international hold off the considerable bulk of Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in the Gallowgate corner that day was the clearest indicator that he was definitely cut out for top-flight while his faultless performance suggested the Magpies had a supremely gifted academy graduate on their hands and a wise head on young shoulders. Ferguson had obviously made a huge impression as we offered him a five-year contract at the end of 2010/11 but his fortunes have rapidly gone downhill since and after disappointing loan spell at Birmingham last season, where he was given the remit of returning to Tyneside knocking on the first team door, culminated in just 14 stars it has convinced Alan Pardew to offload the 22-year-old this summer with his capacity to remain at peak fitness a key concern for the Magpies manager. We've only been treated to fleeting glimpses of Ferguson's undoubted talent - his two assists for Demba Ba's brace at Reading are testament to that - in the past couple of years and it's another sorry tale of a player failing to fully blossom after coming through our system.