Like with Albert, Newcastle fans - and indeed the wider football world - were robbed of the opportunity to see the very best of Woodgate, and when they eventually did he was sold to Real Madrid. But for the brief time that he was in the first team and fit, the former Leeds centre-half was a classy, committed centre-back who could and should have been England's first choice for a decade alongside former team-mate Rio Ferdinand. Fans will long remember how he kept Didier Drogba in his back pocket for the first leg of the 2004 semi-final against Marseille, and while he turned down the chance to return to Newcastle in favour of Spurs in 2008, his brief time in black and white was enough to announce him as a true talent, and a massive missed opportunity.
