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Glenn Roeder's First XI: Where are they now?


Glenn Roeder stepped into the managerial hot seat immediately after Graeme Souness' sacking in February 2006.

Roeder's appointment was initially intended to be temporary. However, excellent results from the time he took over and until the end of the season took the club from a relegation battle into qualifying for Europe and giving the legend Alan Shearer the best possible end to his career.

The good times came rolling in with Roeder. Unfortunately they failed to last. The 2006/07 season started poorly, picked up in November to February and ended badly. Roeder was sacked following the final home game of the season after only one win in the previous 10 league games.

Portsmouth (h), Premier League, 04/02/2006: Won 2-0

Roeder got off to the best possible start as Newcastle looked to recover from the poor run of form they had under Souness. This match will forever be remembered as the match in which Alan Shearer scored his 201st Newcastle goal as he became the club's record goalscorer before retiring at the end of the season.

Here is the line-up from that Southampton match and how far they have come since that day.

Shay Given: Given became a Newcastle United and Ireland legend for his excellent goalkeeping in his many years on Tyneside and is still today seen as a much loved icon. After departing Newcastle in January 2009 to Manchester City, he moved to Aston Villa where he once again became the main man between the sticks before Brad Guzan came in to restrict his chances. He returned to the north east in the form of a brief loan spell with Middlesbrough before he finished his career at Stoke.

Peter Ramage: It is always great to see a player come through the youth academy and make an effective mark on the first team in the same way that the Longstaff brothers are currently doing. Peter Ramage's time at Newcastle might not live long in fans' memories with the lack of key moments during his four years in the first team. However, making 69 appearances for the club is a great achievement.

In 2008, he left his hometown club for QPR. In May 2010, when Newcastle visited Loftus Road, Ramage got himself sent off. He spent the best years of his career as a Championship mainstay. Four years at QPR included loan spells at Crystal Palace and Birmingham before he made a permanent move to Palace where he made 43 appearances in their 2012/13 promotion campaign to the Premier League. Unfortunately he failed to make another Premier League appearance and went on loan to Barnsley in their 2013/14 relegation season to League One.

In 2015, he moved to Indian side, Kerala Blasters. He soon returned to the Football League with brief spells at Coventry and Leyton Orient before moving to USA's second tier with year-long spells at Arizona United and Phoenix Rising to finish his playing career in 2017. He has since remained at Phoenix Rising as Assistant Manager.

Jean-Alain Boumsong: Boumsong made 49 appearances for Newcastle and many fans will argue that it was 49 too many. The French international played in 33 of the 38 Premier League matches in his final season and fans were happy to see him leave in 2006.

Upon his departure, he went to Juventus, who had just been relegated to Serie B. He then returned to France's top flight in January 2008 as he signed for Lyon. He left in 2010 in a search for first team football and he found it at Panathinaikos in Greece where he finished his career in 2013.

Titus Bramble: Bramble was another defender, like Boumsong, that consistently frustrated fans due to his error proneness.

Following his five years of terror on Tyneside, Glenn Roeder made the decision not to renew his contract and the defender, despite being released by a Premier League club, spent his next six years in the top flight with three years each at Wigan and Sunderland. Notably, he was sent off for a professional foul on Andy Carroll in Newcastle's 5-1 win over the Mackems in October 2010. He is now a coach at his hometown club Ipswich.

Celestine Babayaro: The Nigerian left back was a player that saw the best years of his career prior to his arrival at Newcastle. Regular first team chances appeared to dry up for Babayaro after the 2005/06 season. He remained on the club's books before moving to LA Galaxy in 2008 where he failed to make an appearance.

Nolberto Solano: Another true legend of the club started the first match that Sir Bobby Robson took charge for. Solano went on to make 314 appearances for the Magpies and scored 48 goals. He is one of the few midfielders in the top 10 of the club's highest scorers in the Premier League.

He left Newcastle (a second time) in 2007 to join West Ham for a season before his brief spels at Larissa in Greece and Universitario in his native Peru. He returned to England to play for Championship side Leicester City in the 2009/10 season and remarkably made his debut for the Foxes against Newcastle United. Following that season, he moved up north for spells at Hull City and Hartlepool United.

As far as his managerial career is concerned, he has had three brief managerial stints with Universitario, Jose Galvez and Internacional de Toronto.

Scott Parker: Parker had a big impact on the club and the fans despite spending a brief two years on Tyneside. He became the club captain in the 2006/07 season but left the following season to be reunited with his old boss, Alan Curbishley at West Ham. He spent four whole seasons at West Ham before moving to North London rivals Tottenham after being the captain in West Ham's 2010/11 season which in relegation to the Championship.

After leaving Tottenham, he stayed in London to play for Fulham where he spent the final four years of his career. In 2017, he stayed at the Craven Cottage as a coach and became the club's manager in 2019 following a successful brief spell as manager after Claudio Ranieri's sacking which contributed to their immediate relegation back to the Championship.

Emre: The only player who played in this match who has not yet retired from his playing career. After making 82 appearances for Newcastle in three years at the club, he left to go to Fenerbahce to become one of few players to have played for both Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.

Four years at Fenerbahce preceded half a season at Atletico Madrid in 2012 before returning to Fenerbahce for a second spell. He has since remained in the Turkish capital. In 2015, he left Fenerbahce again, this time to go to the quickly progressive club Istanbul Basaksehir. Four years later in 2019, he returned to Fenerbahce for a third time. He is still playing at the age of 39 and is showing no sign of stopping.

Charles N'Zogbia: The French international winger became a key player for the Magpies in his final years of the club. In January 2009, he controversially left the club after then interim manager, Joe Kinnear, accidentally referred to him as 'Insomnia' in a post-match interview. He left to go to Wigan in a swap deal that saw Ryan Taylor come to Tyneside, a player who would go on to become a fan favourite at Newcastle.

He spent three years at Wigan. He was then linked with a move back to Newcastle before Aston Villa snatched him up in the same transfer window that Villa also signed N'Zogbia's former Newcastle teammate, Shay Given. He finished his career at Aston Villa before retiring in 2016.

Alan Shearer: Super Al went on to break the club's goalscoring record in this match and his achievement has been marked with the club unveiling a statue of him in September 2016. His only stint in management came at the end of the 2008/09 relegation season where he was unable to work a miraculous recovery however it is safe to say that, despite his failure to keep Newcastle in the Premier League, it has not changed the fans' opinions of him.

Shola Ameobi: The big brother of the Ameobi family became a fan favourite partly because of how he was able to play his best football on derby day against Sunderland. His 19 years at Newcastle ended in 2014, he even scored at the Gallowgate end in his final home game for the club. He netted four goals in 11 appearance for Turkish second tier side Gaziantep. He abruptly ended his time in Turkey to come back to England. In 2015, he was reunited with his former boss, Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace soon after the manager made the switch to South London.

He had brief spells at Bolton and Fleetwood before spending the last two years of his career playing for the Magpies (Notts County). Ameobi has since become a patron of the NUFC Foundation.

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