By Sarah Winterburn OTHER STORIES No English manager has ever won the Premiership and Bobby Robson will tell you a hundred times that no English manager will win it this season either.

But if they do - and most of us Premiership neutrals hope so, and not out of any misplaced patriotism - it will probably be won by the greatest living English football manager. Which would be rather nice.

Newcastle United are top of the table and, despite Robson's protestations, have considerably more chance of staying there than the likes of Bolton and Everton - who enjoyed short, dizzy spells at the summit earlier in this very odd campaign.

Newcastle do not have a Thierry Henry or Michael Owen up front, they do not have a Roy Keane or Steven Gerrard in midfield and they most certainly do not have a Sami Hyypia or Rio Ferdinand in defence.

They do have a Shay Given in goal (which has proved handy) but their biggest asset is a 68-year-old man who has achieved great things over many years in football management and in almost every gig he's had.

For all the jokes about Werther's Originals, senile dementia, Uncle Bobby and 'I remember the days when you could leave your front door open...', Robson has proved at Newcastle that he has lost none of the guile and passion that has brought him consistent success over the last 30 years in football management.

We're sure he would like us to gloss over his ten-month reign at Fulham as the follies of a young man and concentrate instead on a 13-year tenure at Ipswich that began in 1969 and reaped a FA Cup win, UEFA Cup glory and a very good stab at the league title.

Then came England. Failing to qualify for the 1984 European Championship finals was not the best of starts and the least said about the same tournament four years later the better, but England's performances in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups were easily the best since 1966, when I believe the lads may have done something particularly special.

Back-to-back Dutch titles with PSV Eindhoven, Portuguese titles with Porto, Cup Winners' Cup triumph with Barcelona and a hard-working, difficult but successful return to PSV have been the post-England highlights of a career which has only been seriously blighted at Sporting Lisbon, where he was controversially sacked.

But for all that silverware won in four different countries, the real test is on Tyneside.

To expect him to deliver the Premiership title would be a tad optimistic but if Robson leads his beloved hometown club to within a whisker of true success then he will have achieved perhaps the greatest and most satisfying single thing of his career.

And who on earth would begrudge the greatest living English manager that

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

Answers

not I

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

nor I

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

I too.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

...me neeva

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

Dittbeedin'o

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

Please, how do I get the sub-titles up ?

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

not me

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

I wouldn't.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001

The "dream double" would be fairy-tale stuff - the PL Championship and a knighthood for Young Bobby Robson Esq.

Well, we can dream can't we?

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

Clarky, obviously I want us to win something for us, but I would love to see YBR and Alan Shearer getting their medals: fitting epitaphs to wonderful careers.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

i think clough is still alive...but bob is on his shoulder

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001