If it weren't for his tendency to go off the boil, and the difficult start to his Newcastle career, there's a good chance that Fabricio Coloccini might have made this list as one of the Magpies' finest footballing centre-halves, but he will never do enough to dethrone the big Belgian as the greatest ever. Signed on the back of a brilliant World Cup in 1994 from under the noses of Juventus, Albert is often remembered more for his roaming forward and some phenomenal goals (not least that chip over Peter Schmeichel) but he was also an imperious centre-half who read the game like no other. Equally comfortable running forward as he was containing opposition centre-forwards, Albert was the keystone of the Entertainers side under Kevin Keegan, who launched attacks with his footballing ability and whose brain was as sweet as his feet.
