Jermaine Jenas says which Newcastle United teammate impressed him most during his time on Tyneside

Jermaine Jenas could have had it all at Newcastle United but the former Nottingham Forest midfielder couldn't handle life at a one-club City, comparing it to living inside a goldfish bowl.

It was a huge shame as Jenas, a Sir Bobby Robson signing for £5 million, making him the second most expensive teenager in British football, had bags of talent, and while he was good for Newcastle, he left the club to join Tottenham Hotspur before he hit his peak.

Jenas was in the same side as the likes of Alan Shearer and Laurent Robert, playing in that fantastic Sir Bobby Robson side that finished fourth, then third in consecutive seasons, bringing Champions League football to Newcastle.

The pressure clearly got to Jenas, though, and his performances dropped before he left for London to escape his goldfish bowl.

Jermaine Jenas names Craig Bellamy as the best player at Newcastle while he was there

Speaking on the Filthy Fellas podcast this week, JJ was asked who the best player he played with at Newcastle was. You'd expect the automatic answer would be Alan Shearer, and in a way it was, but Jenas then followed it up with a bit of a surprise name.

“I think as a name, obviously, Shearer was top dog. And I watched Al in terms of a goal-scoring machine and I had him at the end of his career, never seen anything like it. But also the dominance of…

“That’s where I kind of learnt that element of, we used to win games in the tunnel because of Al, really. Because he was just very influential. I think you’ve seen it over the years with people like Harry Kane.”

“So in terms of the influence on a game and getting us to win games and grabbing games by the scruff of the neck, Al was probably the best. But in terms of the ones that impressed me most, I’d say Bellamy.

"Bellamy was like way better than I thought he was. Way better. Like he was obsessed with football.”

Craig Bellamy's ego and mouth got him into a spot of bother at Newcastle

In fairness, Craig Bellamy was an outstanding player for Newcastle, but he was also his own worst enemy with his fiery temper and massive ego clashing with Alan Shearer, and as Ruud Gullit knows all too well, there's only ever going to be one winner there.

I still remember a caption on a photo of Craig Bellamy in some lad's mag like FHM or something which hailed Bellamy as 'The greatest player in the Premier League with no neck'. It was one of the most genius photo captions ever. It's barely relevant to this story, I know, but I wanted to mention it.

Players used to have such huge personalities back in the day, didn't they? But now with all the media training and whatnot, you rarely get a proper heed the ball these days. Newcastle perhaps had their lion's share over the years. Bellamy was definitely one, even Shearer in a way. Let's not forget Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, who may have done something silly at one point.

I've gone completely off the point here ... Jermaine Jenas said Craig Bellamy was a much better player than he thought he was. That's the takeaway here.