... having kept a close eye on events at his former club, the 27-year-old has been staggered by the coup Shepherd has pulled off in signing Duff for such a modest fee.
Huckerby: "He's a great player. He has won the league twice in the last two years at Chelsea and is a very, very dangerous player. I'm quite surprised that Chelsea have let him go, to be honest. But that's Newcastle's gain."
Kevin Keegan signed Huckerby from Lincoln City when he was Newcastle's manager, and the odd glimpse we had of the speedy winger showed he was a star of the future. But then came the Alan Shearer signing, a world record £15m, and it was only done on the condition Keegan would sell players and raise £5m.
Huckerby was the first to be shown the door, in a £1m move to Manchester City.