No-one likes a monopoly, for goodness sake that's why we have a Monopolies Commission (although why is there only one??). Sadly though, not for football. But in the game we know and love, is it not a pleasing feature of the Premiership this season that Newcastle United are looking like the only team capable of breaking the monopoly that Manchester United and Arsenal have on the domestic game's top trophy, the Premiership?
Like millions of others I watched Newcastle dispose of Bayer Leverkusen, for the second time in a week, to keep alive their hopes of progress in the Champions League, a week after they marked Sir Bobby Robson's 70th birthday by rekindling that interest with a 3-1 in Germany. It was interesting that the commentator noted that Newcastle had not lost in something like 50 games, after scoring first. Then, as an after thought he added that the team had also come from behind to win, in ten games this season.
Pondering those impressive statistics my mind drifted back to the televison tribute, earlier in the week, to soccer's premier Knight, Sir Bobby Robson. Yes, I know there are a couple of others but I do mean THE top man because I began to wonder why Newcastle have been doing so well this season and I eventually decided that, as occasionally happens in football, as in life, a number of ingredients came together at the right time to bake a superb cake. BUT, and it is a big but, you have to have a damned fine chef to coax the best out of the ingredients and I decided that in Sir Bobby, Newcastle have a cordon bleu football cook.
As the manager at St James' Park, Robson has a policy that is based on British footballers. Yes, there are the likes of Solano, Robert, Bernard and a couple of others but, and it is another of those big BUTS, the core of the Newcastle side is British, with its inherent work ethic. And there is no one who typifies that work ethic, on which skill and ability are built, than Alan Shearer.
The Magpies'skipper admits Bobby Robson rescued his career after the mis-management of Ruud Gullit had driven him to the brink of leaving his beloved Newcastle. In return, following his retirement from international football, Shearer's career has had a new lift and that is shown in the tangible form of goals, which have been flowing freely from the Premiership's all-time leading scorer.
Talking of all-time Premiership records, and maintaining the British spine of the team, is Gary Speed, who has played more Premiership games than any other player, and who is still at the heart of a top flight club, a re-born top flight club, as he approaches his 34th birthday.
At the other end of the age and career spectrum are Kieron Dyer and Jermaine Jenas. Dyer has been a revelation this season, after so many years of potential unrealised. The former Ipswich starlet, still only 24, has been outstanding in Newcastle's rise to prominence and he has been ably abetted by Jenas, who has taken to the Geordie cause like the proverbial duck to water, ironically as a replacement for Speed during the Welshman's recent injury spell.
Throw in the recent arrival of Jonathan Woodgate, another of Sir Bobby's 'Buy British' policy, and another Englishman to boot and you have almost half a team that is of good old Anglo Saxon stock. It's not being xenophobic to extol the virtues that are inherent to the British game. Having the old fashioned principles, already imbedded in the psyche of players, means that manager and coaches do not have to instil them into players, as they often required to do for those who arrive from cultures where different values are prevalent.
So there you have it. Newcastle have got the players, the passionate support, the stadium and the financial clout that their success gives them, to improve an already improving product, AND they have the Head Chef, who is cooking up a storm on Tyneside. But they also have a bond, an inextricable link that binds the whole mix together and that is respect. Sir Bobby Robson has the respect of everyone working with him, for him and under him and that respect is reciprocal.
Add to that the mutual respect from all at the club with the Toon Army and it's heartening to see that Newcastle United are a viable alternative to the teams who have already had their fair share of the Premiership Trophy. It may not be heading for the St James' Park cabinet this season but there are few backing against it happening before Shearer retires from playing to become Sir Bobby's successor.
