There are players that struggled for Newcastle United and have thrived since. It’s pointless to continue to bring them up.
The sport of soccer is essentially one big network of players. There are rare instances where a player stays with one club his entire career. For the most part, players move around and find different levels of success at different stops. Newcastle United has experienced countless players coming and going, including a lot during Rafa Benitez’s tenure. Some of those players struggled while in Newcastle’s organization and have thrived in new situations. That is natural in soccer and it’s something that cannot consume the minds of Newcastle supporters and others.
Since departing Newcastle United in the last couple of years, players like Joselu, Adam Armstrong, Ivan Toney, and Cal Roberts have thrived and are constantly talked about in various articles for the Mag or HITC or other outlets relating to Newcastle. You can add them to the list of truly star players like Florian Thauvin and Kevin Mbabu. But, it’s important to keep things in perspective.
23-year-old Ivan Toney is currently lighting it up for Peterborough and he has been linked with a move to Premier League. He joined Newcastle after a successful run with Northampton but spent almost his entire time with the Magpies on loan. In those stints with Barnsley, Shrewsbury, Scunthorpe, and Wigan, he scored thirty goals in those lower divisions. Adam Armstrong had a great loan spell with Coventry City before struggling in every other place he was sent. Cal Roberts was a non-factor for Newcastle and scored a lot of goals for Blyth Spartans in the sixth division. The revisionist history with Joselu may be the most ridiculous. You could not find a Newcastle United supporter that trusted in him as the club’s striker. Now that he’s scoring at a high level in La Liga, there seems to be a sentiment that “he’s the one that got away”.
Just like in life, every situation isn’t the best for every person. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. These players all struggled at Newcastle United and needed a change of scenery to start playing well. Sometimes, it can be that simple. It’s not healthy to constantly dwell on these situations. If Yoshinori Muto leaves this summer and starts scoring at a high rate in a lower division or another league across Europe, you can bet that we will see various articles next year about how Newcastle was crazy to let him leave for whatever the cost is. Live in the present and look to the future, don’t obsess on players that left and thrived.