Laurent Robert is a French international midfielder who joined Newcastle from Paris St Germain for £9.5m in August 2001. Robert has won international caps at Youth, B and full levels for his country, and began his career at Montpellier in 1994 before moving to Paris St Germain in 1999. In 2000/01 he made 32 appearances for PSG scoring 15 goals from an attacking left sided position.

Robert stamped his authority on the Premiership with an explosive debut for Newcastle at Chelsea, setting up Craig Bellamy's goal against Sunderland and being involed in all four of the Magpie's goals against Middlesbrough in succesesive games. But, Robert got some stick off Newcastle fans by becoming to lazy and not tracking back after the ball, which he put an end to by the end of the season.

Robert scored 8 goals in the Premiership in this season, including cracking free kicks against Man Utd and Derby and a 40 yard blast against Southampton. The Frenchman also assisted 16 goals for his teammates - the highest number of assists in the Premiership during 2001/02.

However, Robert was critisied in 2002-03 by pundits and ex-professionals for being to lazy again, and for poor performances on the pitch, but kept out Hugo Viana for most of the season, which was also disrupted by injury. Newcastle fans everywhere will be hoping that we see the Laurent Robert from his first season at the club next season, because when he's on his game, he's magnifique.