He had a nightmare season in 2014-15 in France, and the big Premiership clubs lost interest in him ... all apart from Newcastle.
Sky pundit Phil Thompson has savaged the new signing, calling him “very lightweight” and devoid of creativity as Newcastle slipped to another home defeat.
On Sky’s Soccer Saturday, Thompson said that while Papiss Cisse was the biggest disappointment, Thauvin was a major worry for him.
He said: “He runs with the ball all the time, there’s never any end product. He looks very lightweight, he gets pushed off the ball all the time. There was a lot of physical players for Watford, he got pushed off the ball.
“There was no creativity from him at all. I was surprised he stayed on.”
But Cisse was the man who surprised the ex-Liverpool star more than anyone. “The biggest disappointment was Cisse. I questioned whether he should play and he was on at the start. He was dreadful. Wijnaldum did okay, although was nowhere to be seen in the first half,” he added.
Moussa Sissoko, another player under the spotlight, was also criticised.
He said: “Sissoko is one of them where you think: ‘Come on, you can do more.’ Down the right was the most profitable side, they were going down there all the time.”
Janmaat, however, was absolved from blame. “He went down with cramp, he had every right to go down with cramp. He is racing down and Sissoko when he’s going down the right, sometimes he slows down because he’s waiting for Janmaat to overlap.”