I thought I'd do an article and revisit some former Newcastle players playing at obscure clubs (although you'd probably argue some of them are well known to most fans given their location), which will probably surprise quite a few people. I do hope that this doesn't offend any fans of these clubs and I do bet that Henri Saivet and Achraf Lazaar will be added to this list after they leave us (probably next summer).
Mike Williamson - Gateshead
Mike Williamson's time at St James' Park will be remembered for the wrong reasons as he was made a scapegoat for his horrific (and that's an understatement) displays in the 2014/15 season, especially in our eight game losing run (which included being accused of delibrately sent off by John Carver in our 3-0 loss at Leicester City). After Steve McClaren came in as manager, he played two more competitive games (both in the Capital One Cup) and was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers in January (yes, Steve McClaren did do something right as our manager), after his deal ran out there, he spent a year at Oxford United then returned to Tyneside to join Gateshead in August 2018. Despite an impressive first season, which included earning a player-coach role when former club captain Ben Clark was appointed manager in January, he was one of many people let go as the club looked on the bring of liquidation but he was brought back as a player-manager when the club was saved by a fan group (although they did have to drop down to the National League North). The thirty-six year old played twenty-seven times last season, scoring his first Heed goal against Leamington in February and looks set to play for them for a third season, good going for someone of his age and hopefully they can win promotion after losing to Boston United in the play-offs last month.


Adam Campbell - Darlington
You might have forgotten about Adam Campbell by now but the North Shields born striker won the most valuable player award at the 2010 Nike Cup then player of the tournament at the Milk Cup two years later before making his Magpies debut against Atromitos in the Europa League play-offs. He made another four first team appearances and played five times for the England U19s but after five loan spells away from St James' Park, he left for Notts County when his contract expired and after disappointing spells there and at Morecambe and Carlisle United, he netted fifteen goals in thirty-three National League North games at Darlington last season. Looking his career stats, you'd probably say that the sixth tier is his level, which is extremely disappointed given the promise he showed for our U21s with six goals in eight games in the 2012/13 season and he has just been joined at Blackwell Meadows by fellow former Magpies youth striker Luke Charman, shortly after his release from us.


Steven Taylor - Wellington Phoenix
Onto another academy graduate who grew up in North Tyneside, Steven Taylor spent twenty-one years at the club before his release following relegation in 2016, making him, unsurprisingly, the last surviving player from the Bobby Robson era. After spells at Portland Timbers, Ipswich Town and Peterborough United, he joined Wellington Phoenix in July 2018, four years after he featured for us in a 1-0 win against them in the 2014 Football United tour. He was also appointed as their captain a year after joining.


Gael Bigirimana - Glentoran
During his first season at the club after signing from Coventry City, I had hopes for Gael Bigirimana, especially after he scored a cracking goal as we beat Wigan Athletic 3-0 in December 2012 to end a four game losing run but despite twenty-five first team appearances he only made one more before returning to Coventry in August 2016 at the age of twenty-two. After suffering another relegation with the Sky Blues, he spent two years in Scotland at Motherwell and Hibernian before a short spell at National League outfit Solihull Moors, where he made zero league appearances and just recently, he moved to Northern Irish side Glentoran, quite a fall from grace for the 2012 Championship apprentice of the year winner. He made his debut in a 1-0 win over Faroese side Havnar Bóltfelag in the Europa League preliminary round last week.


Remy Cabella - Krasnodar
Despite being our most expensive summer 2014 signing, Remy Cabella struggled to deal with the physicality of English football and only managed one assist and two goals in the 2014/15 season before he was loaned out to Marseille, who bought him a year later, as part of the deal to sign Florian Thauvin from them. The Frenchman, along with Mathieu Debuchy, could've been back at St James' Park with St Etienne in pre season 2019 but he was sold to Russian club Krasnodar nine days before our 2-1 win against them. His first season was marred by an crucate ligament injury he picked up in the Champions League play-offs against Olympiacos, leaving him out of action for just over ten months but he did manage a couple of goals after returning as they finished third, meaning they will get another crack at trying to get into the Champions League group stages.


Mohamed Diame - Al-Ahli
Onto a more recent Magpies player, it was only last summer that Mohamed Diame left us at the end of his contract to join Qatari side Al-Ahli after three years at St James' Park. His first season in Qatar saw him play twenty-two times but like his last season on Tyneside, he couldn't manage to get himself a goal as Al-Ahli only finished three points above the relegation play-offs.


Yoan Gouffran - Ararat-Armenia
Yoan Gouffran's first year on Tyneside after joining from Bordeaux in January 2013 went pretty well, especially in the first half of the 2013/14 season, which saw him become the first Magpies player to score in five consecutive home games since Alan Shearer in 1997. However, it just wasn't the same for him after that and in 2017, he left for Goztepe on a free transfer after helping us to win the Championship title, he was a free agent for seven months after leaving them last summer before heading to Armenia to join Ararat-Armenia. He made thirteen league appearances as they won the Armenian Premier League title last season but is yet to score for them.


Gabriel Obertan - Erzurumspor
After Gabriel Obertan's disappointing five years on Tyneside came to an end when Rafa Benitez terminated his and Sylvain Marveaux's contracts in May 2016, he joined Anzhi Makhachkala three years after our Europa League tie against them but his contract was terminated at the end of 2016. Another short term deal at Wigan Athletic score him score once before being released after their relegation to League One (he was an unused substitute in their 2-1 loss at St James' Park), he did spend one and a half years at Levski Sofia in Bulgaria but was sold to Turkish club Erzurumspor in January 2019, where he still plays today. Like the 2016/17 season at Wigan, he only scored once in his first half season there as they went down but unlike at Wigan, he stayed on and scored three goals in thirty games as they won promotion at the first attempt.


Emmanuel Riviere - Cosenza
Onto an even worse Frenchman, Emmanuel Riviere's record of three goals in thirty-one games in all competitions makes him arguably one of our worst ever strikers and it's a mystery how we got £7,000,000 for him from Metz in August 2017. He suffered a third successive relegation in his first season with them (along with us in 2015/16 and on loan at Osasuna in 2016/17) and after still being unable to do much in Ligue 2, he went to Cosenza in Serie B, where he did net thirteen league goals in his first season, having also been playing alongside current Magpies outcast Achraf Lazaar, who was on loan there.


Tamas Kadar - Shandong Luneng
Tamas Kadar played eighteen games for the first team after joining as a seventeen year old in January 2008 but none of them were in the Premier League. He did a decent job in his thirteen appearances in the Championship winning 2009/10 season but his last game for us came in a 4-0 home loss against Arsenal in the Carling Cup in October 2010. After a short loan spell at Huddersfield Town later that season, he was released after failing to play a single first team game in the 2011/12 season. He did play three times for Hungary at Euro 2016 and is now playing alongside former Southampton striker Graziano Pelle and former Everton and Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini at Chinese club Shandong Luneng (the club we sold Papiss Cisse to in July 2016) but after having to wait five months for his debut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was sent off in a 0-0 draw at Jiangsu Suning but has featured in three of their four league games since then.


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