The Tiote deal has gone quiet... but news that Fergie has completed a permanent move to Millwall. Here is a snippet from .com Having moved into the final six months of his contract at Gallowgate, midfielder Shane Ferguson has completed a permanent move to Millwall. The 24 year-old Northern Ireland international has been on loan at the League One Lions since August and has signed a deal keeping him at the Den until 2017. Fergie's departure ends an association with the Magpies that began in the summer of 2007, when he won an apprentice contract following a success trial spell. Working his way through the junior and reserve ranks in addition to youth international appearances, Shane's maiden senior game actually came for Northern Ireland rather than Newcastle - against Italy in June 2009. Signing a professional deal at SJP on his 18th birthday, Fergie was finally blooded at left back in a League Cup tie against Accrington Stanley in August 2010. A Premier League bow came at home to West Ham in early 2011 and after inking a new five year contract at the end of that season went on to feature sporadically for the first team - often as substitute. That fringe first team status continued until the 3-7 defeat at Arsenal in December 2012 when he came off the bench in the final moments and was criticised by Alan Pardew for giving a goal away to make it 3-5. That proved to his 32nd and final outing for United in all competitions (13 starts) and a loan to Birmingham City eventually spanned over a year before a return to SJP ahead of the 2014/15 season. Further injury woes sidelined him until a surprise loan move to Glasgow Rangers during February 2015, along with Kevin Mbabu, Haris Vuckic, Remie Streete and Gael Bigirimana. However he wasn't fit to play and only managed a couple of outings three months later. His final sighting in a Newcastle shirt came at York City in July 2016, the last of four friendly appearances for incoming manager Steve McClaren - including a farcical "make the numbers up" game at centre back against Portland Timbers 2 in the USA. On his day, Shane was capable of crossing to a high standard, but fitness issues and his slight build made him just too flimsy for the Premier League (playing at left back rather than a winger didn't aid his cause). Fergie is just four days older than Andros Townsend and like the England winger, will hope to play for his country at Euro 2016. Had things turned out differently though, then the man from Derry could have saved us £12m.
Sadly not good enough for the PL and is a mid table championship player at best (albeit better than Sammy) but wish him well for the future!
Always liked Fergie as a player and as a young bloke. Seemed very humble and was never spotted with bling on or falling out of night clubs like some footballers do at his age. Wish him all the best.
Remember seeing him in the League Cup defeat at Old Trafford in 2012 when he came on on the left side when we were 2-0 down and suddenly sparked us into life, rampaging down the wing and crossing for a goal for Cisse within a minute of coming on. Thought then he was quite a prospect but seemed to play a few first team games then and go out of favour. Love the comment in the article: That fringe first team status continued until the 3-7 defeat at Arsenal in December 2012 when he came off the bench in the final moments and was criticised by Alan Pardew for giving a goal away to make it 3-5. So Arsenal scored another 2 in those final final moments - shows how crap our defence was. I blame Pardew - he ruined another promising player.
It's sad that so many good prospects got Pardewed. The silver fox liked to openly criticise his players past and present. He also liked to play the blame game a bit..
Just not quite good enough. Had some moments of looking like he had potential but seemed to have issues away from the game perhaps looking at his loan spell at Birmingham and manager comments. Unfortunately like so many young players if you can't knuckle down talent alone gets u nowhere
I watched him in our pre-season game at York in August. Decent going forward but was destroyed going the other way. He'll do a good job at Millwall as that is his level.
Maybe. Some players need to go down to go back up. Not the case in Simpson mind. I always maintained though much maligned he was a very good defender. He didn't offer a lot going forward but that works in favour of an attacking winger. A lot of the fans seemed to get on his case. All I know is we were better defensively with him than we have been at any point since. Debuchy/Janmaat clearly offer loads more going forward. He is a better defender than both despite many posters on here claims to the contrary at the time.
Simpson won us a lot of points by being on the post/ line. He was shocking going forward, but was decent at the back. Should never have got rid in the first place.
You could blame Pardew for putting up with it. I suppose he probably didn't have the option of keeping the likes of Nolan, Barton, Simpson etc. If they weren't going to be first choice then 1. Mike saw no need for a squad 2. They probably didn't want to be squad players. Looking back though I'd have happily kept Simpson. I dare say he was more keepable than Nolan and Barton in terms of wages. Raylor was retained afterall. That said he probably wasn't fit enough to be sold. We were easily at our best defensively when we had Simpson right back, Raylor left back with Colo,Saylor in tandem that season we finished 5th. That 11 game unbeaten run at the start of the season was built on solidity. Even Obertan played his part. Then when we broke out of our mid season slump, Santon took over on the left and HBA came in for Obertan. Highlighted the importance of having different types. We got lucky in that Simpson was incredidbly fit, he rarely missed a game.
Simpson was part of the reason why we got promoted straight away. He was a rock in the Championship. Doing a great job at Leicester now.
I never understood why we got rid of him. I always thought he was a decent RB. He may not of been flash going forward but defensively he regularly would dig us out of a hole.
We didn't get rid of him. He was replaced by Debuchy mid-season, and promptly left on a freebie when his contract ended.
