Answers a lot of questions about money, too.

The secret of Bobby Robson's success is simple enough - he is addicted to football.

The 67-year-old can look back upon 50 years in the game that have made him a household name, not only in England, but around the world.

But he freely admits that the moment he loses his hunger for the game, he will walk away without a regret.

The former England boss will lead his Newcastle United side into battle once again at Manchester United on August 20 after masterminding their escape from last season's Premiership dogfight determined to re-establish the club he supported as a boy among the domestic game's elite.

There were those who felt the grandfather was too old to endure the rigours of top flight management when he succeeded Ruud Gullit in September last year, but few of those critics remain to be persuaded that he still has what it takes to embellish his already distinguished reputation on Tyneside.

"I'm still intoxicated by the drug which is football, it's as simple as that," he said.

"This time last year, I didn't have a job. I was resting and watching clubs prepare for the season and for the first time in my life, I wasn't involved in that and I missed it.

"I'm still up for it, I'm still excited about it. The day I wake up and I'm not excited about training and stuff like that is the day I won't do it."

The determination to succeed is something which has characterised the County Durham-born miner's son's career since he signed professional terms as a player at Fulham in 1950, and that drive shows little sign of waning as he continues to do what he does best long after most of his counterparts have hung up their tracksuits and headed for the golf course.

But he has an added incentive in his current post, a job he acknowledges is a labour of love.

"I didn't think I would work again in England because there weren't many clubs I'd have taken on," he said. "I'd worked in football a long time and with respect, I didn't want to go back and start all over again at Accrington Stanley, as an example.

"There were really very few clubs that I would have taken on, so that's why when Newcastle came up, it was the perfect club.

"It's a gigantic job in a mammoth industry among a very heavily saturated football-mad populace. It's perfect.

"There were very few jobs I would have taken, and this was one of them. It came up for me and I regard myself as very lucky that it did."

Luck, however, is not something that Robson factors into his equation for success.

That, he firmly believes, is down to his management ability, his recruitment policy - Carl Cort and Argentinians Christian Bassedas and Daniel Cordone have joined the Magpies' ranks during the summer - and the ability of the players he employs to transform what he tells them on the training pitch into positive results when it matters.

He would dearly love to end the trophy drought that has seen the St James' Park club go empty-handed since lifting the Fairs Cup in 1969, but he refuses to set any specific targets for the new campaign other than to improve upon last season's creditable 11th-place finish after a desperate start.

However, the target of qualification for Europe is one which the club is desperate to achieve after the experiences of the last few years.

"I'm not setting any targets, I just feel we need to get off to a better start," said Robson. "We've bought three quality players and I don't think we'll have the same injury crisis that we had last year, so that in itself is an improvement.

"All things being equal, we should have a better season, and if we have a better season than we had last year, then you would think that we'd finish much better than 11th.

"If we're going to be a big club and think about Europe - and we are - that's what we've got to go for. We're in the top eight clubs in the country, so we've got to finish in the top eight and fight it out with the Liverpools and the Arsenals and the Manchester Uniteds.

"I know what I want out of the game and I know what the Newcastle United public would like, so we're just going to do the best we can to give them what we can.

"We have a high ambition at the club with a big motivation - but I can't promise them anything but hard work."

To that end, Robson has invested #11.5million of his club's relatively modest disposable income in strengthening the squad after warning chairman Freddie Shepherd - like him, a lifelong Newcastle supporter - not to expect any cash left over in his transfer kitty.

"I forced the chairman to give me a small amount of money and I told him not to expect any change," Robson said. "And there's not a penny left.

"I spent it and he knows that, and if we can do a little bit more, we'll take whatever we can make and I'll spend that as well.

"The chairman knows more than me, I guess, how much it means because I haven't lived in the area for a long time. I was born and bred here and educated here and played my early football here, but I haven't lived here for years and years like the chairman.

"He knows what Newcastle United means to the people up here and what it would mean to them to get this club back where it belongs, and that's what we're all working towards

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2000

Answers

I'm hoping that the comments about money are just the standard smoke screen to stop clubs from upping prices....we were definitely told that there was money available for berb but the transfers in and out almost balance so where's the cash he was supposed to have?

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2000

I think the 'smokescreen' idea is right. Only time will tell whether or not we have any money left. A lot will depend on how many season tickets the club thought they would sell and how that fits in with the transfer budget.

He obviously feels he needs to spend a fair bit more!

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2000

You may be right, Gav - clubs do seem to see us coming..

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2000

I'm not so sure, I reckon the transfer kitty was Cort and Bassedas. Therefore we have money left but not a bucket full. I reckon there could be a few mills left. The season Ticket debacle means they are not sure of full funds or are not confident. Don't forget we can't really afford to service anymore debt.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2000

I dunno if this has been on here before - apols if so. A colleague at work gave me hardcopy of the Observer Sport Monthly for August yesterday. He's a St James Park lad as well - from Exeter! Anyway, there's an interesting article about YBR which I've since found online here< /a>. Sadly, the photos are not reproduced online, but I will try to scan them in and post them at Tunnel End (don't hold your breath mind!).

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2000