Newcastle Fans’ 11 Most Hated Players Of The Modern Era

4. Shola Ameobi

It's perhaps a little cruel to say that Shola Ameobi - the longest serving Newcastle player in recent memory and a "great servant" of the club according to all fluff pieces ever written on him - is hated, but it wouldn't be a miscalculation by any means. Despite emerging onto the first-team picture with some expectations - and a great stand-off with Dennis Wise on his debut - Shola spent way too much time not scoring for anyone to really fall in love with him, and while he would go on to earn the Mackem Slayer title, any affection shown to him was usually tinged with irony. He might have tried his very best in black and white, but it didn't look an awful lot like that from the stands, and he was far more frustrating than he was entertaining for most of his career. Stories would emerge from time to time about his reluctance to train hard (the source always being a friend of a friend who worked at the club or something) and his poor scoring record made it far too easy to criticise him. Which fans did with glee until he left this summer.