The Newcastle United Blog

Former Newcastle on loan striker Giuseppe Rossi thinks his time on Tyneside was a useful part of his footballing education.

Giuseppe Rossi - learning experience on Tyneside

When Rossi was signed on loan by Glenn Roeder last season until January, we thought it was a good move. But surprisingly Glenn didn’t play him much at all.

Although he made 11 appearances for Newcastle some of those were substitutions in the last few minutes of games, probably to appease Alex Ferguson. Giuseppi always looked like he could score and we’re not sure even now why Roeder didn’t play him more.

After he left Newcastle he went to Parma on loan but then he joined Villarreal last summer, and finally broke his ties with Manchester United.

Ever positive Giuseppe talked about his time at Newcastle:

“I made a decision, I thought it was a good one,”

“I only played 11 (league) games, and I consider it wasn’t much. But it was a learning experience.”

“ You don’t only learn from the positive experience, you learn more from the negative ones.”

“ So therefore playing for Newcastle United and being part of that team helped me to grow as a person.”

It’s a mature young man who can make a responsible statement like that. His time at the club after all was an unfortunate one.  Most players would slag Newcastle off, but not the young Italian.

Giuseppe certainly hasn’t lost his goal scoring abilities. In the 18 games he’s played in Spain so far, he’s scored 10 goals. He’s a natural goal scorer and we cannot help but think if he had been given more of a chance, he could have done well at Newcastle. There was a chance he could have stayed on loan all season, and anything could have been possible after that.

He turned 21 last month, and when he played at Newcastle he was just 19 years old.

Here’s the Teaneck, New Jersey born Joe Red’s (nickname) career so far:

Years 	     Club 	             App   Goals

2005-2007    Manchester United         5    1
2006-2007    Newcastle United (loan)  11    0
2007         Parma (loan)             19    9
2007- 	     Villarreal               18   10
2003         Italy U-16                5    3
2003-2004    Italy U-17               14    6
2004-2005    Italy U-18                3    0
2006- 	     Italy U-21               16    4

In his 53 first class appearances, not counting his many Italian Youth games, he’s scored 20 goals, which is not too bad for a 21 year old. We think Rossi will become a big player for Italy in the future.

We’ll have to see how he continues his football development, but we wish him the best of luck - he’s a good lad.

Comments welcome.