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Albert Luque makes it 11 for Newcastle in worst Premier League strikers list

6 years ago
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The name of Albert Luque became synonymous with the dramatic fall from grace for Newcastle United, as Graeme Souness went about the job of ruining the club and ripping apart Sir Bobby Robson’s team.

The likes of Craig Bellamy, Olivier Bernard, Laurent Robert, Aaron Hughes, and Jermaine Jenas were shown the door, with Souness bringing in the likes of Babayaro, Owen, Boumsong and Luque, that final trio costing almost £40m (back in 2005!).

When you consider Rafa Benitez was only allowed a net spend of £11.5m this summer…

Both situations obviously ridiculous – the money wasted back then on players with neither the ability or heart to justify the fees, whilst this year Ashley shamefully refusing to back a top class manager.

This week The Mail are publishing a list of the worst ever PL forwards and counting down to the very worst, they had named 10 former Newcastle strikers within the positions of 100 down to 41.

With over 25 years worth to choose from, there are plenty of candidates but Newcastle United appear to be represented a little too well…

The 10 who had already been named/listed are:

Paul Dalglish (99), Seydou Doumbia (85), Nile Ranger (77), Luuk de Jong (75), Michael Chopra (71), Shefki Kuqi (67), Andrea Andersson (61), Emmanuel Riviere (57), Daniel Cordone (46), and Jon Dahl Tomasson (44).

The name of Albert Luque can now be added to that stellar line-up, with The Mail having now listed positions 40 down to 21.

38 – Albert Luque

‘Days before the signing of Michael Owen, Graeme Souness bought Spain international Albert Luque to Newcastle for £9m.

A hamstring injury suffered in just his second game was a sign of things to come for the former Deportivo La Coruna striker.

He finally got off the mark in April 2006, but was then left without a squad No at the start of Sam Allardyce’s reign in 2007.

He eventually joined Ajax later in that window, having found the back of the net just that solitary time.’

The goal they refer to was the fourth and final one in Alan Shearer’s last ever match, a 4-1 second-half hammering of Sunderland.

However, they have ignored Albert’s other claim to fame, when Newcastle produced an excellent performance to beat Palermo away in the UEFA Cup on 2 November 2006, the game incidentally that was also Tim Krul’s first ever appearance for NUFC.

We now await the top 20 positions in the worst ever Premier League strikers list, wondering if there will be any more recognition for some of the chancers we have all watched in black and white.

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