THERE are few things in Sir Bobby Robson's life that can compete with his all-consuming love of football, but the music of Frank Sinatra holds a special place in his heart.

The former Newcastle boss has a soft spot for the legendary crooner, quite apt given that Sinatra is one of the few people to have enjoyed as many successful comebacks as he has.

When Robson left PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 1999, he was 66 years old and ready for retirement.

The rose beds and the golf course were beckoning but, when his beloved Newcastle United came calling, he was unable to turn down the one job offer he had been waiting most of his life to receive.

After worshipping the likes of Jackie Milburn, Len Shackleton and Albert Stubbins in his youth, Robson was as distraught as any Newcastle fan at the shambles left by the recently departed Ruud Gullit.

Newcastle had picked up just one point from the first five games, were rooted to the foot of the Premiership table, and were being torn apart by dressing room splits that threatened the very stability of the club.

Robson was brought in to turn things round and, during the five years he has been at St James' Park, he has presided over a transformation that has seen Newcastle re-establish themselves amongst the top four or five clubs in the land.

But, just as chairman Freddy Shepherd was right to move Gullit aside in 1999, so he was right to relieve Robson of his duties yesterday.

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't pleasant and it probably wasn't the best of ways to treat a 71-year-old knight of the realm.

But the stark similarities between Gullit's Newcastle United and the current model on display at St James' Park meant Shepherd was left with no choice.

On the pitch, things are very much the same. Newcastle are yet to win a league game and, where Gullit's United threw away a two-goal lead against Wimbledon in a game that could have helped save his job, so Robson's side contrived to let a similar lead slip against Norwich last week.

Away from the field of play, both managers presided over a dressing room riven apart by internal splits and opted to leave talismanic skipper Alan Shearer on the bench as the curtain fell.

The only thing wrong with Shepherd's latest decision was the timing, with Robson effectively hung out to dry in the last three weeks.

The writing was on the wall when the Newcastle chairman announced that Robson's contract would not be extended beyond the end of the season earlier this month.

From that point onwards, it was clear that Shepherd had grave reservations about his manager's capabilities. But, if he had decided he was not the man to take Newcastle forward in the future, why didn't he make a clean break earlier this summer?

Allowing the situation to drift has created a situation whereby Robson's replacement is unable to bring his own players to the club until the transfer window re-opens in January, and has forced one of the game's true gentlemen to endure a slow and tortuous demise he did not deserve.

Shepherd is not the only person to have soured Robson's time on Tyneside either. A number of senior players should be looking at themselves in the mirror this morning and asking if they did everything in their power to keep him in a job.

The answer, for some, will unquestionably be no, and it is galling to think of Kieron Dyer picking up his £60,000-a-week pay packet while his former manager picks up his P45.

His reign might have ended on a sorry note, but history will remember Robson as a manager who brought the glory days back to Tyneside.

He didn't win any silverware, but who can say that the talented youngsters he assembled at St James' Park will not end the club's trophy drought over the next two or three years?

The likes of Jermaine Jenas, James Milner, Shola Ameobi and Olivier Bernard are Robson's legacy and, only last weekend, he was admitting that he would be unlikely to see the full fruits of his labours.

"I won't get the best out of Wayne Rooney if we sign him and I could say it will give me a headache," he said, after being quizzed about his pursuit of the Everton star. "But I don't think like that.

"I think about the club. I won't see the best out of Milner either, but when I do leave the club I will leave it neat and tidy."

Many managers would have taken a more short-term view - but not Robson. His love of Newcastle ensured the club always came first.

As Sinatra himself would have said, Robson faced the final curtain stating his case of which he was certain.

From Villa to Valerenga, he travelled each and every highway. And more, much more than that, he did it his way.

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