It is fair to say Luuk De Jong’s loan spell at Newcastle United in the second half of the 2013/14 season was not a particularly memorable one.
The Dutch striker failed to score in any of his 12 appearances for the Magpies and unsurprisingly, the move was never made permanent.
Struggling to find his feet in the Bundesliga with Borussia Monchengladbach at the time, De Jong returned to PSV in the Netherlands where his rediscovered his predatory instinct.
Four brilliant seasons in the Eredivisie saw Sevilla spend £11m to bring him to La Liga where his form has, once again, been inconsistent.
However, in the last couple of hours of transfer Deadline Day, five-time European champions Barcelona began talks to take him to the Nou Camp. Even more astonishingly, the deal involving De Jong saw him replace the outgoing Antoine Griezmann who re-joined his previous club Atlético Madrid.
While the crippling financial issues in Catalonia help to add context to the news surrounding the Dutch international, it came as a shock to Newcastle fans to see him secure a move to one of the world’s elite clubs.
Those supporters will tell you that his inability to put the ball in the back of net wasn’t the only issue during his time in the North East, as plenty of Magpies fans could hardly distinguish him as a professional footballer.
There were plenty of amusing responses to the news on social media and despite poor transfer dealings at their own club, some members of the Toon fanbase even expressed their sympathy towards Barca fans.
Here is what they had to say.
A number of Twitter users referenced one of Barcelona’s other forwards, who also failed to show his full potential in the North East.
Martin Braithwaite, now considered one of the club’s starting forwards, scored just eight times for Middlesbrough in 36 Championship appearances between 2017 and 2019.
