Seydou Doumbia, Facundo Ferreyra, Islam Slimani: five forgotten Newcastle United loanees this decade
Outside St James’ Park is a wall listing every player to make an appearance for Newcastle United – the likes of successful loanees Salomon Rondon and Loic Remy are adorned among the many more to make their name for the club.
But not every player has been so fortunate for one reason or another; remember Facundo ‘Chucky’ Ferreyra in 2014?
SportsByte takes a look at some of the less successful loanees in the last decade, so since 2012, shining a light on where they went after things went sour for the Magpies.
Danny Rose
Danny Rose signed during Steve Bruce’s first season as manager, and while some fans appreciated his jovial honesty when it came to local chippies, his time on Tyneside was fairly quiet besides the initial fanfare.
It later emerged in Amazon Prime’s ‘All or Nothing’ that Rose was pushing Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, instead towards a potential move to Milan.
Rose played 863 minutes for Newcastle including 10 starts but given his loan move was so ineffectual for his career, some may wonder what all the fuss was about.
Since returning to Tottenham, Rose saw himself frozen out of the team and he was later sold in 2021 to Watford where he has played eight games this season.
Antonio Barreca
Antonio Barreca became a Magpie in 2018/19 as then-manager, Rafa Benitez, hoped to tighten the defence in a bid to keep the club afloat that season. And while Newcastle stayed up with 45 points on the board, unfortunately Barreca had very little to do with it.
In fact, some wondered why he was even signed as he only played for five minutes in the half a season he was there.
The explanation surely must be emergency cover but as he wasn’t needed, he quietly departed at the end of the season: Barreca still plays for Monaco who Newcastle loaned him from, but spells with Genoa, Fiorentina and now Lecce in Serie B mean he has dropped of the radar for sure.
Seydou Doumbia
The signing of Seydou Doumbia on transfer deadline day in 2016 came as a big shock to supporters, who may have known him best for his electrifying pace on the FIFA game series.
He made only three appearances and failed to score as the Magpies were relegated to the Championship at the end of the season.
Local media have since reported that the reason it didn’t work out was because he wasn’t favoured when McClaren left the club in March 2016.
Replacement Benitez just didn’t need him which appears to be a familiar theme in this list.
Facundo Ferreyra
Ferreyra, known to some by his nickname ‘Chucky’, was whisked away from the crisis in the eastern region of Ukraine in 2014 when he swapped Donetsk for Tyneside.
He failed to make an appearance that season and returned to Ukraine a year later.
Under former Newcastle manager target, Paulo Fonseca, he made himself a respectable strike force as he bagged 34 goals in 50 appearances between 2016 and 2018.
He has recently signed for Tijuana in Mexico where Ferreyra has scored one goal.
Islam Slimani
Just a year-and-a-half earlier, Slimani had signed for the reigning Premier League winners, Leicester, from Sporting CP from a then-record £28million.
His career had become stunted thanks to his less-than-stellar goal record in the top flight (it stood at 8 goals in 35 appearances) and Newcastle offered him an escape route.
Maybe he is best known for getting sent off for violent conduct when a challenge involving West Brom’s Craig Dawson went badly – his season was abruptly ended at that point and Newcastle finished 10th that season without him.
Besides that, however, he did contribute to two goals in the second half of 2017/18, though he left a forgotten loanee as he failed to score.
There may even be names that have escaped our attention while coming up with this list including many permanent forgotten transfers.
It shows the speaking must be said on the pitch for them to have any meaningful impact.
