Arsenal buying the greatest ever Newcastle United striker – Should never have happened | OneFootball

Newcastle United sold, in my opinion, our greatest ever (post-second world war certainly) centre-forward to Arsenal. This was 1976 and the transfer of Malcom Macdonald – Supermac.

Withe, Varadi, Goddard, Quinn, Cole, Ferdinand, Shearer, even Ba and Cisse, were all good and worthy successors, but Malcolm Macdonald in my eyes stands above them all.

Idolised by the Geordie public, the charismatic and swashbuckling ‘Supermac’ explosively plundered well over 100 goals in five exhilarating seasons on Tyneside.

There was outrage on Tyneside when Gordon Lee sold our hero to the Gunners for the quirky amount of £333,333.

Within months, Malcolm had bagged a hat-trick at Highbury against the Toon. In fact, he basically couldn’t stop scoring for Arsenal, averaging a League goal every other game, before serious injury ended his career at the age of only 29.

He was the First Division’s top scorer twice. With Newcastle in 1975 and Arsenal in 1977.

He still holds the England record for scoring all five goals in a European Championships qualifier against Cyprus.

At Newcastle United he forged productively brilliant striking partnerships with John Tudor and later Alan Gowling. Malcolm also had an almost telepathic on field relationship with the late, great Terry Hibbitt.

At Arsenal, Malcolm Macdonald became an inspiration to the aspiring genius that was Liam Brady, also helping to nurture the poaching talents of the young and raw Frank Stapleton and Alan Sunderland.

There is no doubting that Newcastle United and Arsenal are two of the truly great English clubs.

Last season’s corresponding fixture between the two sides at St James’ Park is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

That Anthony Gordon goal and the subsequent petulant and pathetic behaviour of the Arsenal head coach and their club’s hierachy.

On Saturday, it will almost exactly a year since that United victory. I am backing us to repeat the dosage with another narrow victory.

No one will be more pleased than a cockney lad who became an adopted Geordie. He lives in North Shields and he still answers to Supermac.

I would like to think that older fans of both Newcastle and Arsenal that are in attendance this weekend, can still remember how good Malcolm Macdonald actually was.