The 2008/2009 Premier League season was characterised by the dramatic fall from grace of Newcastle United.
Even by their own turbulent standards, situations both on and off the pitch led to their demise and their ultimate relegation from the Premier League.
Kevin Keegan, in his second stint as manager of the Magpies, resigned in September at the beginning of the season citing a lack of control over transfers and disagreements with the club’s board.
The main problem was the board conducting plans behind Keegan’s back – selling one of his most prized assets in James Milner to Aston Villa and signing nobodies like Spanish striker Xisco (who currently plays in Thailand) and Uruguayan Nacho Gonzalez.
Dennis Wise, who was Director of Football at the time, told Keegan that they were good players and to look them up on YouTube.
That was the final straw and Keegan walked away from the club.
In the months following that, Newcastle went through a number of managers including Chris Hughton, Joe Kinnear (good god) and Alan Shearer.
They were relegated.
And one Irishman amongst the chaos was our very own Damien Duff.
Newcastle only needed a point on the final day of the season to keep them up.
Unfortunately, a spineless performance from the team and an own goal from Duff consigned the Magpies to their first season out of the Premier League since the league was formed.
In a recent interview with FourFourTwo, Duff was asked whether this was the lowest point of his career and he agreed.
“When you say it like that [was the own goal your lowest moment in football], yes. Over the 38 games that season, we deserved to go down. I probably took a lot of flak for scoring the own goal on the last day at Aston Villa. I’ve refused to ever watch it back.
“We only needed a draw to stay up and then to see the scoreboard say, ‘Duff OG’, I thought, ‘What the f**k? What are the chances of that happening?”
On his disappointing three seasons in the north-east, Duff admitted that it just didn’t work out but it wasn’t for the want of trying.
“That [own goal] probably summed up my three years up there. I gave them everything but sometimes moves don’t work out.”
All careers are going to have their ups and downs and it’s safe to say that Duff felt this when he spent three seasons at Newcastle after his move from Chelsea.
