Steve McClaren was a rather unpopular appointment at St. James' Park. Following Alan Pardew's departure from Newcastle in December 2014, speculation was rife surrounding McClaren being linked to the job on Tyneside. His Derby side were on course for promotion back to the Premier League in the 2014/15 season, they were top of the Championship in March and went on to finish below the play-offs. McClaren later claimed that the speculation with being linked to Newcastle had distracted him from his promotion push with Derby.
His time at St. James' Park just lasted 30 matches, leaving Newcastle in 19th place in the Premier League with 10 league matches remaining. He has failed to return to management in the Premier League.
Southampton (h), Premier League, 09/08/2015: Drew 2-2
Tim Krul: The 2010/11 season was perhaps Krul's breakthrough Premier League season where he provided back up for Steve Harper who adopted a fair few injuries that season. Krul became the first team goalkeeper in August 2011 under Pardew and was later given the number one shirt. His time at Newcastle sadly ended in disappointment; he picked up a season-ending injury in October 2015 and was sadly never favoured by Rafa Benitez.
Since that injury in 2015, Krul has found regular football hard to come by. He had loan spells at Ajax and AZ before becoming Brighton's back up goalkeeper to Mat Ryan for a season. However, his career began to pick up in 2018 when he moved to Norwich City where he helped achieve promotion back to the Premier League with the Canaries. He has continued to be ever-present for them this season.
Daryl Janmaat: The Dutch right back was a mainstay in that position and left the club soon after the 2016/17 Championship season started. He is now in his fourth season at Watford and has made over 80 appearances for the Hornets. Now at the age of 30, he is deemed as back up now at Vicarage Road with the Spanish Kiko Femenia being preferred by Nigel Pearson.
Chancel Mbemba: Mbemba was a fresh and exciting young defender when he arrived at the club, acting as a first team replacement to the likes of Steven Taylor and Mike Williamson. He spent three seasons at the club and often found himself used sparingly under Rafa Benitez which, no doubt, would have left him frustrated as he was trying to breakthrough to the first team with little success.
In his final season at Newcastle in 2017/18, he only made 11 appearances which was followed shortly by his departure to FC Porto in Portugal where he still is at the age of 25.
Fabricio Coloccini: After struggling in his first season on Tyneside, Coloccini's career burst into life with the help of the 2009/10 Championship season, similar to Jose Enrique.
He would then go on to be a key figure at St. James' Park, becoming club captain in 2011 before his departure following the club's 2016 relegation from the Premier League. He is still playing for San Lorenzo, the club he joined after leaving Newcastle.
Massadio Haidara: Haidara arrived at the club as a promising young full back but soon after arriving, a horror tackle from Wigan's Callum McManaman would go on to arguably destroy his potential as picked up recurring knee problems in the knee that McManaman clobbered. In his six seasons at Newcastle, he was predominantly used as a back up and only made a total of 53 appearances before leaving for Lens in Ligue 2 in 2018 where he still is.
Comically, according to The Sun, Haidara played for Newcastle as the lone striker in the club's 2-2 draw against Manchester City in November 2019. He looked remarkably exactly like Joelinton that day.
Vurnon Anita: Anita may have lacked in quality on the pitch compared to other players but his work rate and ability to play in a range of positions was consistently credited. Although mainly a central midfielder, he spent his last days at the club in right back as cover for DeAndre Yedlin in the Championship. He chose to remain in the Championship following Newcastle's promotion to the Premier League by moving to Leeds United.
He stayed at Elland Road for two years, the last year going to Willem II on loan in his native Holland. After being released at the end of last season, he now plays for Bulgarian side, CSKA Sofia and also makes rap music for his own record label.
Jack Colback: It was a decent first season on Tyneside for Jack Colback and fans often commended him for his work rate. During a season where the team's work rate came under scrutiny by the fans, Colback was a player who then stood out for the right reasons and prompted John Carver to say that he wishes he had a team full of Colbacks.
Following the arrival of Rafa Benitez at Newcastle, Colback's appearance in the first team became fairly regular but once the club returned to the Premier League, he was sent out on loan back to the Championship. He is now still at Newcastle and stuck in the reserves as he is not registered to play in the Premier League.
Moussa Sissoko: A player who was able to turn on the style and be unbeatable on his day. The downside, of course, was that it felt like he did not do it often enough and when it was not his day, he gave off the impression that he did not care which understandably hurt the fans.
After being part of the club's 2015/16 relegation campaign from the Premier League, Sissoko followed it up with being one of the best players of the Euro 2016 tournament which earned him a big move to Tottenham shortly before the transfer window closed. He is still at Tottenham and has recently surpassed 500 career appearances, 133 of those were for Newcastle.
Georginio Wijnaldum: This 2-2 draw against Southampton was Wijnaldum's debut for Newcastle and he got off to the best possible start as he opened his goalscoring account with a lovely directed header past Maarten Stekelenburg. Of course, this was Wijnaldum's only season on Tyneside where he finished as the club's top scorer which earned him a move to Liverpool following the Magpies' relegation to the Championship.
Whilst at Liverpool, he has been an important part of the team that Jurgen Klopp has built at Anfield and scored in their remarkable Champions League semi-final against Barcelona to take them to a second consecutive Champions League Final. At the time of writing this, if the 2019/20 season does not end as null and void, he will almost certainly pick up a Premier League winners medal.
Gabriel Obertan: Obertan would probably be remembered for his inconsistency whilst at Newcastle. The 2015/16 season became his last on Tyneside having only mustered up 6 appearances, he was released alongside Sylvain Marveaux just before the season finished.
In the following season, he returned to St. James' Park as an opposing player for Wigan in April 2017. His time with the Latics shortly concluded and he then went to Levski Sofia in Bulgaria before joining BB Erzurumspor in Turkey last summer where he still is at the age of 31.
Papiss Cisse: After being the club's top scorer in the 2014/15 season, Cisse got his 2015/16 season off to a good start as he converted Massadio Haidara's cross to equalise for Newcastle just before half time in this match. Unfortunately for Papiss, this season was a miss for him as he only scored three goals and much of the striking attention was on then new signing, Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Following Newcastle's 2016 relegation, Cisse moved to the Chinese Super League to play for Shandong Luneng and became trending on Twitter after scoring a freakish goal in October that year. In 2018, he transferred to Alanyaspor in the Turkish Super Lig where he still and, at the age of 34, he has scored 25 goals in his 39 matches for the club.