Truth behind Fabricio Coloccini's NUFC struggles revealed by former Toon teammate

Former Mag James Perch has made some interesting comments on Fabricio Coloccini's final few years at St James' Park, explaining just why he was so keen to return to Argentina.

The classy centre-back and curly-haired captain angled for a return to South America towards the end of his time on Tyneside, with The Guardian confirming in January 2013 that he'd told Alan Pardew he needed to leave for personal reasons.

Eight years later, Perch has insisted that Colo missed home and had to put his wife and young kids first, revealing how he'd have to get a 10-15 hour flight back to Argentina to see loved ones.

Here's what the ex-NUFC utility man told Planet Football when asked about Coloccini's exit:

“Colo was young when he left Argentina.

"He’d been away from home for 15 years and he wanted to go home.

"When you’ve got family, your kids and your wife to think about, I can’t imagine how hard that would be for him. I

"I’ve always been in England, but even when I was at Newcastle, I wanted to come back to Nottingham.

“When you get foreign players who’ve been so successful abroad, I can understand them wanting to go home.

"I was just a couple of hours away, Colo was 10 or 15 hours by plane.”

All these years later, Coloccini remains in Argentina with San Lorenzo, not only playing at the age of 39 but recently landing a contract extension at his boyhood club.

For me, he's the best centre-back we've had since the turn of the century and an absolute class act. Yes, he took time to settle and was past his best in his final season at St James' Park, but he was a joy to watch in his prime and made the game look easy at times.

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