Bramble became a figure of ridicule for his all-too-regular cock-ups during five years at St James' Park.
Yet Sir Bobby Robson stood by him (because he paid £5m for him); as did Graeme Souness (who tipped him to play for England) and Glenn Roeder (because the injury list was so long he had no-one else to pick).
Bramble: "Maybe I should have moved on from Newcastle to get first-team football earlier.
"The Newcastle fans aren't as good as everybody says.
"They think they should be winning things — but why?
"They've not won a trophy for 50 years.
"The fans got Sam Allardyce the sack there. Can you believe that? The fans up there are powerful but I think he would have brought them success.
"It all got rather personal and it hurt.
"People just jumped on the bandwagon and started saying this and that about me.
"I used to get quite down but friends and team-mates told me not to let it bother me."