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The Day Newcastle Fans Were Gobsmacked!

Last updated : 09 July 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor
We could not get past Lee Clark signing for the Mackems ... but perhaps YOU could come up with something better. If so ... please e-mail us with an article: Kevnumad@fsmail.net

LEE CLARK

Clarkie signed for Newcastle in 1988, a Geordie boy through to his bones, and he made 261 appearances for Newcastle before a £4m transfer that just about stopped the traffic in Newcastle city centre!

I received a phone call from a local press reporter asking me for a quote: "What do you think about Lee Clark signing for Sunderland?"

I waited for the punch line ... which didn't come. I was gobsmacked.

I have known Clarkie for years. I had seen him pull out of a talk-in at a local club because he was to share the night with a Sunderland player (and he had not been told about), and when I met him outside of the club and told him ... his jaw dropped.

I won't tell you the club, or the Sunderland player, but I promise it is true.

I had seen him and Michael Bridges (then a Sunderland player but Toon fan at heart) sing football songs in the Vaults in the Bigg Market many times on a Sunday evening ... anti-Sunderland songs in Clark's case.

And for him to sign for the Mackems ... it still makes me shiver!

Even as a Sunderland player, he was in Saints bar (Durham) one Sunday with Michael Gray, Kevin Phillips, and several more Sunderland players, and we had just returned from a fixture against Liverpool. Clarkie borrowed my Newcastle season ticket and rubbed it in Gray's face ... shouting "That's the team!"

I'm sure we all know about the SMB (Sad Mackem Bastards) shirt he wore at Newcastle's FA Cup final against Arsenal, and it cost him his Newcastle career.

But best of all was the talk-in after the SMB event when Mackem legend

DAILY MAIL REPORT - TOP FIVE UNWANTED TRANSFERS

After Harry Kewell's move to Galatasaray, which has incensed some Leeds fans - two United supporters were stabbed to death by Turkish fans at a UEFA Cup semi-final in 2000 - Sportsmail looks at other moves which have provoked the anger of supporters.

Mo Johnston (Nantes to Rangers, 1989)
On the face of it moving from France to Glasgow does not seem that big a deal until you look at Johnston's past, having played for Rangers' arch-rivals Celtic and being a Catholic - which many fans saw as a betrayal of the Protestant club's traditions.

Luis Figo (Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000)
Figo's switch from Barcelona to their hated rivals Real produced some of the most extreme reactions ever seen from fans, with Figo's return to the Nou Camp in 2002 seeing the Portugal winger pelted with bottles, mobile phones, coins and even a pig's head when he tried to take a corner.

Paul Ince (West Ham to Manchester United, 1989)
In a major PR gaffe Ince was photographed in a Manchester United kit long before his £1million transfer had been completed. The player has received abuse from West Ham fans ever since and will renew rivalries this season, having just taken over as manager of Blackburn.

Sol Campbell (Tottenham to Arsenal, 2001)
After months of negotiations Campbell turned down a record-breaking pay offer from Spurs to sign for north London rivals Arsenal - having previously pledged never to play for the Gunners. The fact he left on a Bosman free transfer only further rubbed salt in the wounds.

Eric Cantona (Leeds to Manchester United)
In one of the worst pieces of transfer business in history, Leeds boss Howard
Wilkinson allowed the French striker to cross the Pennines for just £1.2million. Cantona went on to become one of United's - and the Premier League's - greatest players.