But when chairman Freddy Shepherd introduced us to Graeme Souness ... having disguised him as "our next manager will be a Geordie" ... we knew Fat Fred was pulling the piss!
You can dress Souness up in a tartan kilt and have him play play Flower Of Scotland on the bagpipes, but that tash and curly perm is SCOUSE!
And when he brought in his side-kick - Dean Saunders - with a curly perm that was more like an Afro, we were sure to be the laughing stock of football!
Saunders claims his time at St James' Park was "a mistake" ... and we could have told him that before he entered St James' Park.
Within six months Souness and and Bubbles kicked out the class and had us back to where we were under Jim Smith.
They were unpopular in the dressing room, and HATED by the majority in the stands, and it was a happy day when the pair packed up and ****ed off!
Saunders is now saying his former Welsh striker partner, Mark Hughes, is a fool for taking the manager's job at Manchester City.
'Curly Perm' Puts The Boot Into The Geordies!
He said Hughes may be better off staying at Blackburn Rovers.
He said he feels the Eastlands club is in a similar position to that Newcastle were in when he and Graeme Souness moved from East Lancashire to Tyneside in September 2004.
Saunders: "Man City will not be run like Blackburn and Sparky will realise that if he goes there.
"I had a shock going to Newcastle. Graeme took a risk going there but you don't realise how well Blackburn is run until you've left.
"Mark has done well and taken the club into Europe a couple of times by finishing seventh twice.
"But that is because of how it's run and because the chairman and the directors are very stable people.
"Mark will have the same problem at Man City that we had at Newcastle and he'll realise it should he get there."