Albert Luque - the Spanish superstar signed at a huge cost of £9.5m and brought to Tyneside to create and score goals. It hasn’t quite happened for him, however, has it?

In only his 2nd game for us he picked up a bad injury, a tear to the hamstring that kept him out for a few months, and when he did return he was rushed back by Souness. In the little he played under the Scot he generally looked uninterested, not surprisingly.

While many fans took offence to that I personally didn’t hold him to any blame because he wasn’t the only one lacking any heart under Souness and given he was new to our club and from foreign shores, not to mention the fact he wasn’t fully fit, I excused his lackluster performances and perceived lazy on-field attitude.

As far as I was concerned under Souness our more skillful players were always going to underperform and shirk away from his unique brand of the beautiful game which was to run yourself into the ground, fly into tackles and generally kick your way to the final whistle.

Compare Parker’s performances to Solano’s under Souness and who stood out? The grafter not the technician.

The likes of Luque were brought up and schooled to PLAY the game not fight and scrap and while I acknowledge foreign players do need to find a balance between those two extremes if they want to succeed in the Premiership, it takes more than a few games to do that which is what was being asked of Luque at the time.

Now that he has been here over 12 months, however, he should be more than adjusted. Only he hasn’t been getting the games and under Roeder it doesn’t look like he ever will!

In a season where we are short up front here we have a player who is renowned for scoring and creating goals, albeit in La Liga, but he’s spent more minutes warming up than playing football.

Yet is Luque worse than those already picked by Glenn to create and score us goals?

The stats say no, in the 2 starts (YES TWO) Luque has made under Roeder he has 2 goals to his name which is a better strike to games ratio than anyone in the side, now contrast that to Duff’s 1 goal in 11 starts - another player bought to create and score goals… One keeps getting selected the other keeps getting ignored!

In the 18 competitive games we’ve played this season Luque has featured in just 7 of them, starting 2 (InterToto Cup) and coming on as sub in 5 other games. More tellingly he has been an unused sub 4 times. For a club desperate for options up front this is flagrant misuse of a player who cost us a lot of money, one that can’t be defended.

If Roeder doesn’t trust him to do the business then why put him on the bench at all?

If Roeder doesn’t like what he sees in training, again why put him on the bench and why praise him for his efforts in training which he has done a number of times now?

If he isn’t fully fit which Roeder has alluded to in the past why is he anywhere near the first-team and if Luque isn’t fully fit, then what the hell is Shola Ameobi who keeps getting selected despite the whole world knowing he needs a new hip?

Luque should be a new manager’s wet dream; here we have a clearly talented individual who cost a lot of money but who isn’t or hasn’t produced the goods.

Any manager worth their salt would want to get a hold of that player and get him producing - all good managers do that.

Keegan did it with a whole host of players as did Sir Bobby Robson. Fergie does it at Man Utd, Wenger at Arsenal and Benitez at Liverpool just to use a few examples.

Hell, even Souness couldn’t wait to work with perennial waster Kieron Dyer - promising to straighten him out and to get him delivering.

And to be fair when Dyer was fit he was often one of our more productive players under the Scot. Although that wasn’t too difficult a task given most weren’t even trying at times. The point still stands though.

With Roeder there has been no real concerted effort to use him at all, at any time and at any stage this season. The two times he has been used he has delivered 2 goals.

Just why Luque isn’t getting more minutes on the pitch is mystifying to me given our lack of options up front, our injury troubles and our goalscoring issues.

I’m not surprised that when he does get the odd minute here or there he doesn’t show any real feeling for the club or doesn’t run his socks off, who would?

He’s not a Geordie and while its easy to ask for blood considering what they get paid, lets be real here. Wages have nowt to do with it if you’re unhappy.

It doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in you aren’t going to love your boss, or your employer much less the job you’re paid to do if you yourself aren’t wanted.

The “he doesn’t even try” debate is a moot one anyway because he’s hardly played and when he has, how hard must it be for him to lift himself knowing there is little chance of winning over a manager who serially keeps overlooking him despite a shortage of attacking options up front, mounting injury casualties in that department and a growing inability to find the back of the net?

When we are coasting (Pompey 3-0) he doesn’t get used.

When we have just one recognised striker fit to play (Rossi at the weekend) he doesn’t get used.

And when we are badly in need of a goal like at the weekend….

Play him Glenn, he can do no worse than those firing blanks, running about like headless chickens or sending crosses out for a goal-kick that are currently getting in ahead of him. They may sweat more and look more interested but they are as much use to us as Luque warming up is.