It was a shock appointment which heralded the start of a four-year rollercoaster ride at Newcastle United. And by the end of it, even Alan Pardew wanted to get off.
Three days after the sacking of Chris Hughton, with the Magpies a solid 11th place in the promised land of the Premier League that Hughton had led them back to just seven months earlier, Pardew walked into St James’ Park.
Just two days after that, his new team claimed a memorable 3-1 home win over Liverpool in his first game in charge. Friday marks the 12-year anniversary of Pardew’s arrival on Tyneside, and the man himself is now in warmer winter climes, taking charge of Greek Super League club Aris Thessaloniki.
But what about the players who delivered him that maiden Magpies victory in 2010? Where exactly are Pardew’s first Newcastle team now?
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Tim Krul
Krul won Player of the Year in Pardew’s first full campaign, his safe hands guiding Newcastle United into fifth place and a return to European football for the first time since 2006-07.
Between 2016 and 2017 Krul went out on a series of loans to Ajax, AZ Alkmaar and Brighton before permanently departing to the Seagulls on a free transfer – where he remained for a year before joining Norwich, also on a free.
The Dutchman – famous worldwide for his penalty shoot-out heroics coming off the bench for Holland at the 2014 World Cup – was a mainstay of two promotions to the Premier League for the Canaries.
At 34, Krul began this season as still Norwich’s #1, but has recently lost his first-team place to Angus Gunn.
Danny Simpson
A surprise Premier League winner with Leicester City after a solid but unspectacular four-year spell at St James’ Park, Simpson retired in March this year following an unsuccessful stint with Bristol City – making just eight appearances in almost 12 months with the Robins.
Simpson is now involved in TV and radio punditry, having featured on BT Sport, TalkSport, MUTV and Leicester City TV. But he has also been working with mental health charity Sporting Chance to highlight the struggle of some footballers to deal with the end of their day-to-day involvement in the game.
Steven Taylor
Taylor never quite lived up to the huge promise he showed as a teenager, and which saw him make for first-team debut for Newcastle in the UEFA Cup against Mallorca a few weeks past his 18 the birthday. Having made over 200 appearances for United, a series of injuries limited Taylor’s playing time in his final few seasons at St James’ Park, and he was released following relegation in 2016.
A short and less than happy spell in MLS with Portland Timbers followed, before Taylor signed a short-term deal at Ipswich and then moved on to League One side Peterborough in July 2017. After impressing for the Posh, Taylor was offered a deal by Wellington Phoenix in the Australian A-League, and spent two spells with them, either side of a short stint in the Indian Premier League with Odisha.
At 36, he announced his playing retirement in September 2021, and now coaches United Arab Emirates-based Gulf United, winning them promotion to the UAE Second Division following a 3-1 play-off final win over Fleetwood United – the UAE sister club of the English club of the same name.
Sol Campbell
Newcastle was Campbell’s last club, as he retired at the end of the 2010-11 season. The former England defender earned his FA UEFA Pro-Licence coaching badge, and began his career in the dug-out as assistant manager of the Trinidad & Tobago national team.
Having then been appointed Macclesfield manager in 2018, Campbell walked out on the club the following year as its finances collapse. He was then installed as Southend United boss, but a disastrous run of form saw the Shrimpers relegated from the Football League at the curtailed end of the 2019-20 season.
Campbell left Southend that summer, has been without a management job since, and has claimed racism is stil a factor in the lack of high-profile black managers and senior coaches in English football. Having featured occasionally as a pundit for the BBC and the Premier League, his most recent media work has been on the VISA Match Centre show on Sports18.
But Campbell is also CEO of a furniture company, FBC London, owned by his North East-born wife, Fiona Barratt, with whom he shares a family home in Northumberland.
Jose Enrique
Enrique was a regular at left-back in Pardew’s first half-season at Newcastle after winning the fans’ player of the year award in the 2009-10 promotion campaign. Former Magpies manager Kenny Dalglish then paid £7 million to take the Spaniard to Liverpool in August 2011.
But after impressing in his first couple of seasons at Anfield – particularly as a left wing-back under Brendan Rogers – Enrique suffered a series of injuries. Released by the Reds at the end of the 2015-16 season, he signed for Spanish second-tier club Real Zaragoza, and made 27 appearances for them before retiring with a knee injury the following summer.
But Enrique’s biggest battle still lay ahead, as he was diagnosed with Chordoma, a rare brain tumour, in May 2018. Thankfully, he received the all-clear the following April, saying: “I am now in recovery and so thankful. Life is too precious."
In recent years, Enrique has become best known among Toon fans in recent years for his Liverpool love-in on social media. He also offers personal cameo videos for £41, while appearing as a pundit on Premier League games for US TV.
Kevin Nolan
Nolan helped Newcastle win promotion in 2009-10 and then captained the club in their first season back in the Premier League. But he moved back into the Championship with West Ham in the summer of 2011, claiming that
United’s then chief executive Derek Llambias had gone back on the offer of a new contract. Nolan also wore the captain’s armband for the Hammers, and led them straight back to the Premier League.
After two good years at Upton Park, Nolan’s fitness and form waned during the next couple of seasons, and he was released in the summer of 2015. But, stints in management at Leyton Orient and Notts County, Nolan returned to West Ham in February 2020 to join David Moyes’ coaching staff, where he remains.
Joey Barton
Barton redeemed his reputation – damaged by being jailed for assault in 2008 and then a part of Newcastle’s 2008-09 relegation team – by helping United win promotion in 2009-10.
He then impressed in the Magpies’ first season back in the Premier League, before – like Nolan – falling into a contract dispute with the club, and leaving for QPR in the summer of 2011.
He captained the R’s, but his performances dipped to the point where he was booed off the pitch by fans. Having been charged by the FA for his reaction to being sent off in QPR’s final-day defeat at Manchester City – which earned City the Premier League title – Barton was put on a final warning by QPR, and loaned to Marseille.
Returning after his season in France, Barton played for QPR for two more years in the Championship before being released and signing for Burnley, helping them to promotion to the Premier League. A spell at Rangers was then cut short after a training ground disagreement, and Barton rejoined Burnley before a ban from football for illegal betting activity effectively ended his playing career.
Jumping straight into management with Fleetwood Town, Barton spent almost three seasons the Cods, before leaving in January 2021 with a charge for an alleged post-match assault of Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel still hanging over him.
Barton then became manager at Bristol Rovers, where he remains. As well as being acquitted of assaulting Stendel, he led the Pirates to a memorable final-day promotion from League Two in 2021-22.
Jonas Gutierrez
After almost 200 appearances for Newcastle in a near-seven year spell on Tyneside, “Spiderman” left St James’ Park under a cloud. Having survived testicular cancer a couple of years before, Gutierrez then claimed he only found out about his 2015 release from United via a conversation between his teammate Ryan Taylor and interim manager John Carver.
“Elgago” signed for Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga before returning to Argentina for two spells with Defensa y Justicia, sandwiched between a stint at Independiente. Having only retired from playing in January 2021, Gutierrez has one a variety of work and recently completed an accounting assistant internship at a business university in Cordoba.
He has also spent time coaching young players as part of a McDonald’s soccer clinic, doing talks for Nike and has also landed sponsorship deals with Warrior Boots and Tavernity Jeans.
Cheick Tiote
The tragic passing of Cheick Tiote in June 2017 broke the hearts of the Geordie Nation, with the Ivorian midfielder having only left Tyneside a few months earlier to start an adventure in China.
Tiote arrived at Newcastle a few months before Pardew, and starred alongside the cultured Yohan Cabaye in a silk-and-steel midfield partnership.
Best remembered for his dramatic first goal for Newcastle - the equaliser in the 4-4 draw against Arsenal in January 2012 – Tiote’s form dipped in his final three seasons on Tyneside. With injuries also hampering his progress, he signed for Chinese League One club Beijing Enterprises in February 2017.
All appeared well, as he played in 11 of the club’s first 12 games after his arrival. But then, two days after the last of those appearances, he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in training. He was just 30.
Andy Carroll
Geordie-born striker Carroll started his professional career on Tyneside and rose to prominence with 17 Championship goals as Newcastle won promotion in 2009-10. Carroll then impressed in his first season of regular Premier League football, scoring 11 goals in 19 games.
But even so, the football world drew a deep breath on deadline day in January 2011 as Liverpool came in and paid an astonishing £35 million for him. However, Carroll’s time at Liverpool – like his career beyond – was hampered by injuries, and although he played and scored at the Euro 2012 finals and a loan move to West Ham went well enough to result in a permanent transfer, he has only ever fleetingly shown his best form.
Having returned to Newcastle in 2019 under Steve Bruce, Carroll scored just one goal in 37 appearances before departing at the end of his contract in the summer of 2021. Having signed for Reading in November 2021. Carroll left for West Brom the following January, staying at The Hawthorns until the end of the season, before rejoining Reading in September as a free agent.
Shola Ameobi
Ameobi – despite the celebrated “Mackem Slayer” status he enjoyed for several decisive Tyne-Wear derby goals, became a bit of a fringe player under Pardew thanks to the arrivals of Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse.
But he remained at St James’ Park until the summer of 2014, before leaving – after 14 years and 300-plus appearances - to join Turkish side Gaziantep Büyükşehir Belediyespor. He soon returned to England to play for Crystal Palace, Bolton and Fleetwood Town before finishing his career at League Two Notts County.
Ameobi returned to Newcastle in June 2019 as the club’s first ever loan manager, overseeing Elliot Anderson and Matty Longstaff’s successful temporary spells away from the club last season. He remains involved in the coaching set-up under Eddie Howe, and was pictured this week in Saudi Arabia, during the United squad’s warm-weather training visit.
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