ROBSON is the man to manage Newcastle United.

And Jerome should be appointed as his number two.

While they're at it, Jimmy Nail would make a good defensive coach and Ant and Dec could do a job with the youth system.

For Newcastle United FC plc is a joke and the man laughing loudest and longest is the man running the show.

Not Sir John Hall, nor his pathetic henchmen, son Douglas and Freddie Shepherd, but the top dog himself, the big cheese, king of the hill, top of the heap, A No 9...none other than Alan Shearer.

The man's ego has grown in inverse proportion to his effectiveness on the field, to the point that he now clearly does not warrant a place in the England squad, let alone the starting line-up for Saturday's game against Luxembourg.

Ruud Gullit is perhaps the only man who could challenge Shearer in the self-importance stakes, but he deserves some sympathy. For Shearer should have been dropped long before the Sunderland game, and not just because his game plan is now just a flurry of elbows and bottom lips, but because he was openly flouting the authority of the manager.

Gullit had no option but to attempt to gauge whether he had the backing of the St James's Park hierarchy.

But, with snivelling sycophantic poodles like Hall and Shepherd in charge, there was only one winner and that was the favourite, so protecting their own hides.

When, though, will these people wake up to the fact that Shearer no longer carries that kind of clout? Three managers have effectively perished because of his presence at Newcastle.

Kevin Keegan could not deliver the success that a £15 million gamble demanded, Kenny Dalglish was unable to mould a team around him as he did at Ewood and Gullit dared to challenge Shearer's authority.

The other Robson, Bobby, could do a lot worse than to send him packing before the cancer of Shearer's personal ambition claims a fourth victim.

Neil Bramwell is the Sports Editor

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.