Newcastle United strikers – What a waste of money | OneFootball

As fans, we adore good Newcastle United strikers.

Newcastle United fans loving those centre-forwards, the number 9s, who make their mark.

However, for every David Kelly there has been a Rob Macdonald.

For every Papiss Cisse, there has been an Emmanuel Riviere.

I have now compiled my list of the biggest wastes of money, the worst Newcastle United strikers, in these past 40 years.

So in chronological order here goes.

Rob McDonald (1 League goal in 10 appearances)

After an undistinguished career in Dutch football, how did Hull born Rob get to pull on the famous black and white stripes you may all ask?

I for one will never fathom it out and I still find myself shaking my head 37 years later.

What the hell possessed Bald Eagle Jim Smith to bring this guy to our club in the first place is anyone’s guess.

He arrived from Danish football with no proven pedigree, then just as quickly disappeared into footballing obscurity.

Andreas Andersson (4 League goals in 27 appearances)

Kenny Dalglish spent canny money to bring Andersson over from AC Milan.

Our dour Scottish manager was now well into overdrive in his mission to seemingly destroy everything his predecessor Kevin Keegan had built.

Andersson was a big lad but didn’t seem to be able to mix it physically. An on field timidness and a reluctance to get into scoring positions, inevitably led to more money being thrown down the drain.

Carl Cort (7 League goals in 22 appearances)

A £7m Sir Bobby Robson buy from Wimbledon in 2000, Carl’s four year spell on Tyneside was blighted by injuries.

This signing ultimately proved to be a waste of time, money and energy.

Cort was talented to a degree and regained some of his fitness after leaving United to do well at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Michael Owen (26 League goals in 71 appearances)

The biggest and most expensive waste of space of the lot.

In 2005, Graeme Souness thought it was a good idea to splash £16m on a player that everyone connected to the deal, knew didn’t want to join Newcastle United.

Owen was almost a decade on from the fresh kid who had burst onto the scene for Liverpool, and then starred for England in the 1998 World Cup.

Injuries/absences had crept into his game and his pace had visibly diminished. It didn’t take long before Owen was a regular on the Toon treatment table, he suffered serious injury playing for England in the 2006 World Cup.

His only claim to fame in a Newcastle shirt was when he netted both United goals in the Tyne/Wear Derby in 2008.

By the time Owen had left Newcastle for Man U on a free transfer in 2009, the Toon had been relegated.

Owen is regarded as a hate figure in Gallowgate to this day, mainly due to his lack of empathy towards the club who once tried to resurrect his stalling career.

Emmanuel Riviere (1 goal in 26 appearances)

A typical signing during the Ashley era, Riviere actually cost £6m from Monaco.

He was bloody hopeless and I often thought long and hard about how this bloke was actually making a living playing professional football in the EPL.

Jon Dahl Tomasson (3 goals in 23 League appearances)

Tomasson arrived from Heerenveen in 1997 as a hot prospect.

He missed a great opportunity minutes into his debut and never ever really seemed to recover from it.

His time on Tyneside will be remembered as one of disappointment, for him and us.

After moving on, Jon had a stellar goalscoring career with Feyenoord and Milan.

(Let me know in the comments section if you can think of any other Newcastle United strikers in the last 40 years, who come remotely close to rivalling this lot for incompetence and lack of value for money.)