As previously mentioned, our fanbase has an ever-growing number of ‘In The Know’ Twitter accounts and plane trackers that have linked Newcastle to signing virtually every player in Europe over the years.
Over the years many players have become recurring links to the club window after window, most of whom never come, but a few have eventually made their way through the doors at St James Park to varying degrees of mostly limited success. Let’s have a look at some whose planes finally did land in Newcastle, and how their careers have gone since.
Jetro Willems
It seemed every window in the early 2010s that we were linked with a new Eredivisie prospect, and one that was always in circulation was the Flying Dutchman Jetro Willems. He was most heavily linked to Newcastle whilst at PSV, during which time he was considered a vastly exciting young prospect.
In 2017, Willems left PSV for Eintracht Frankfurt and the links with Newcastle seemed to die out as he settled in nicely at the German side, winning the DFB Pokal in his time at the club. Just as many Newcastle fans were potentially starting to forget about him, Willems joined the club on loan with an option to buy at the start of the 2019/20 season. He quickly became a fan favourite, scoring thunderbolts against both Liverpool and Manchester City in his short half-season stint in black and white. Disaster struck when Willems tore his ACL in a 1-0 home victory over Chelsea, ending both his season and his chances of joining the club permanently at the end of the loan.
Newcastle Fans called for Willems’s return when he recovered, and can still be seen in his Instagram comments to this day asking Jetro to come back, but following an unsuccessful spell in the German second division and a half-season stint in his home country with Groningen, Willems now finds himself settled at fellow Eredivisie side Heracles. After an incredibly promising start to his career in the Netherlands, and despite becoming something of a cult hero in his short stint at St James’, Willems’s career has certainly not reached the heights it once looked as though it could.
Luuk De Jong
Eredivisie stars continue to be a common theme in this list, as Newcastle were consistently linked with Dutch striker Luuk de Jong during his prolific time at FC Twente. After previously being linked with a 16 million pound move to Newcastle, a very large fee at the time which stunned even the Dutchman himself, the rumours seemed to die down as Luuk moved to Bundesliga side Monchengladbach.
Unable to recreate his Eredivisie Numbers in Germany, De Jong signed for Newcastle on a half-season loan in 2014. It quickly became apparent that not signing him permanently for big money years prior was the right call, as De Jong was unable to adapt to the Premier League, not scoring a single goal in any of his 12 league appearances for Newcastle.
To every Geordies’ surprise, De Jong found a lot of success later in his career, starting with his return to the Netherlands with PSV. He quickly regained his goal-scoring touch, scoring 94 league goals over the next 5 seasons, whilst helping the club to their first Eredivisie title in 22 years in the process. Arguably the best night of his career came in the 2020 Europa League final for Sevilla, in which he scored 2 goals and won man of the match in a 3-2 victory over Inter Milan.
After a decent loan spell at Barcelona, De Jong would again return to PSV. He finished last season with 29 league goals and 15 assists in 34 league games, and is currently the 6th top scorer in Eredivisie history – if only he could have done it in black and white!
Remy Cabella
Cabella was one of the numerous French attacking midfielders who were consistently linked with the club during Alan Pardew’s reign as Newcastle Boss. A tricky winger with heaps of flair, Cabella looked fantastic to the YouTube scouts in the fanbase, and following multiple transfer windows of being linked to the club Cabella eventually signed for Newcastle in 2014.
Despite a very promising and impressive debut on the opening day of the season against Man City, Cabella failed to adjust to the physicality of the league or maintain a good run of form long-term. Despite some promising signs and impressive games, Cabella ended the season with only one goal in 34 appearances.
He was loaned to Marseille at the end of the season and joined them permanently the following season. Cabella has floated around Ligue 1 clubs ever since, with spells at Marseille, Saint Etienne and a return to former club Montpellier, with a 3-year stint at Russian club Krasnodar in between.
He has enjoyed moderate success in France, playing regularly for many of the top clubs in the division, but he is another that never reached the heights many originally thought they were destined to. Cabella is currently a regular starter at Lille and looks likely to end his career with no real success outside of France.
Florian Thauvin
In what turned out to be a virtually identical failure of a deal as the Cabella transfer, Thauvin was another French attacking wonderkid linked to the club consistently during the Pardew Era. He eventually joined the club in 2015, essentially directly replacing Cabella who went to Marseille in the opposite direction. Thauvin like his predecessor failed to adapt to the Physicality of English football, scored just one goal for the club, and was swiftly sent back home to Marseille on loan the following season.
Contrary to Cabella, finally, was his career after leaving the Magpies, as Thauvin went on to find incredible goal-scoring form back in France, scoring 63 goals in 158 appearances for the club over the following half-decade.
His crowning achievement by a mile is being in France’s 2018 World Cup winning squad, however, he only played a minute off the bench for Les Bleus in the tournament. After a brief spell in Mexico with Tigres he now plays for Italian side Udinese, aged 31.
