My Newcastle United – Why I loved Patrick Kluivert | OneFootball

Here at The Mag we have introduced a new feature, asking a number of our regular / irregular contributors to write about a past Newcastle United player that they liked / loved for whatever reason(s), not necessarily the best player they have ever seen.

More the fact that, this player became a big favourite of theirs, no matter what level of ability they had.

This time it is – My Newcastle United – Why I loved Patrick Kluivert.

Our thanks to Jonathan Drape-Comyn for providing this overview:

Three words you could use to describe this player?

Clinical, Class, Lazy…

To be honest, I struggled with three words here but I think they’re all fitting of his time at the club that has long been talked of as being underwhelming, which I think is very unfair.

Can you pinpoint what was the exact moment when this player first felt a bit special for you?

Probably before he’d ever played for Newcastle.

Patrick Kluivert was always a top striker for me growing up, but the first time I saw him play was at SJP in a friendly.

I think it was a full sell-out crowd for a friendly in which Barcelona tore us apart, making it look like the exhibition match it actually was. Kluivert scored a great goal that night too. At that stage, it would be a pipedream that only two years later he’d sign for us.

We then played Barcelona again the following season in the Champions League. Kluivert scored again at Nou Camp (although so did Shola to be fair), but his performance back at SJP was phenomenal. He scored, again, but I will always remember the home crowd applauding him off the pitch.

How many times has that happened at SJP?

What were this player’s strengths when at Newcastle United?

Holding the ball up for one. It wasn’t until he signed for us that I realised how big and strong he was. You could tell he had maybe lost a yard or two from his prime Kluivert days but he was so strong on the ball.

I think that worked for our side at the time, especially with Robert on one side of the pitch. Most importantly though, he chipped in with some big goals for us in his only season. Match winning goals that sent us to the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, and then Spurs.

He scored 13 goals in his only season with us. Only Alan Shearer (14), Obafemi Martins (17), Demba Ba (16), Loic Remy (14) and Callum Wilson (18) have scored more total goals for us in a top flight season in the 20 years since then.

Any weaknesses?

Mobility for one, but you could argue his passion had gone, especially towards the end of the season with Souness in charge and the team throwing away the FA Cup and UEFA Cup in spectacular fashion.

His performance away in Lisbon, where he only played the disastrous last 30 minutes, left many fans fuming. It probably played a role in him being dropped from the FA Cup semi-final on the Sunday, despite the fact he almost single-handedly guided us there.

It was rumoured that he refused to come off the bench against Man United. When he did come on the pitch, he dallied around for 30 minutes, before collecting his mate Van Nistelrooy’s shirt at the end.

It went down as bad attitude, which it was, but it could have been handled much better by a manager who was disastrous for Newcastle United.

Your favourite memories of this player?

Undoubtedly the Spurs and Chelsea games that took us to Cardiff.

Honestly, maybe?

He is not too dissimilar to Callum Wilson in his style. Although, I highly doubt with his apparent attitude issues that Eddie Howe would have put up with him for too long.

With Sandro Tonali now having signed, what would that make your best available NUFC starting eleven?

Pope

Trippier

Schar

Botman

Burn

Bruno

Tonali

Willock

Joelinton

Almiron

Isak

Including your choice of much loved player of the past, please give us a whole team of your much loved Newcastle United players of the past, once again, they don’t have to be the eleven best NUFC players you have ever seen play, just 11 who you really liked down the years (you can include current Newcastle players in this much loved all-time eleven).

Shay Given (GK)

Habib Beye (RB)

Steven Taylor (CB)

Nikos Dabizas (CB)

Aaron Hughes (LB)

Temuri Ketsbaia (CM)

Hugo Viana (CM)

Nobby Solano (RM)

Lauren Robert (LM)

Hatem Ben Arfa (AM)

Patrick Kluivert (ST)

Honourable mentions for Antoine Sibierski, Charly Insomnia, Goochi Onyewu, Jonas, Peter Lovenkrands, Marlon Harewood and James Perch.