Newcastle United still searching for lost hope 20 years after Bobby Robson’s homecoming

Optimism is thin on the ground in Newcastle and has been for some time. In fact, almost since Mike Ashley walked through the doors at St James’ Park 12 years ago.

Under a regime that has gradually squeezed the life out of the club, the proud old ground no longer rocks on a matchday, so much as mournfully sulks as the club’s ambitions continue to fall dramatically short of those who now trudge increasingly wearily through the turnstiles.

How different things were 20 years ago this week when one of the North East’s favourite sons returned for a homecoming like no other.

Then aged 66, Sir Bobby Robson’s appointment was hardly a move with the future in mind, but the energy he brought to the role following the dismissal of Ruud Gullit created the kind of positivity so dismally lacking on Tyneside at present.

“It was like a Messiah had arrived,” says Nikos Dabizas, the defender who spent six years at the club between 1998 and 2003.

Now the technical director at Panathinaikos back home in Greece, Dabizas played in Newcastle’s first win under Robson in Bulgaria in a Uefa Cup tie against CSKA Sofia.

Robson’s first match in charge had ended in an underwhelming 1-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A 2-0 victory in the Bulgarian capital, though, hinted at what was to come.

“It was a rough period for us (under Gullit),” says Dabizas. “A lot of us were not part of the plans under him. The future was not bright for us or for the club.

“When Bobby came, everyone started from scratch, from zero. Straight away you could sense a change in the atmosphere, not just in the dressing room but in the town in general.

“We had a new lease of life. The game in Bulgaria was a big one for us. That first win gave everyone a huge lift. A lot of the boys who hadn’t been playing came back in for that game. It was a new start. After that, the general feeling was completely different.”

If a win in Sofia had given the players and the locals renewed hope, then what followed didn’t just raise expectation levels as send them into a different stratosphere.

“I think we had something like one point from our first seven matches,” says Warren Barton, who was signed for Newcastle by Kevin Keegan in the summer of 1995.

“We were shipping goals. We had no confidence and to be honest not a lot of hope. Then Sheffield Wednesday came to St James’ Park and everything changed.”

The match report in The Independent the following day pretty much summed up the mood, after a rampant Newcastle took flight at the expense of a hapless Owls’ side.

“It was Bobby Robson’s, Alan Shearer’s and Newcastle United’s day,” the report read.

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The records tumbled. Shearer scored five – in an 8-0 demolition job that saw Wednesday replace Newcastle at the bottom of the table – the biggest match haul in his career. Robson, meanwhile, celebrated his biggest win in club management, while Newcastle enjoyed their biggest win since 1946. Robson had promised Shearer he would buy him a Mars Bar if he had scored six.

“I’ll have to get my own now,” said Shearer after missing out.

Confectionery promises aside, it was a sweet win in every sense. A first three points in the Premier League since April meant that instead of looking fearfully down, English football’s great entertainers were looking skywards once more.

“I was in the stands that day because I was suspended but the atmosphere in the ground was incredible,” says Dabizas. “The hairs on the back of my neck stand up even now when I talk about it.

“Sometimes you can sense things from day one. Appointing him was the best decision Newcastle ever made, alongside bringing in Kevin Keegan.

“Sometimes career achievements speak volumes about the personality of the coach. If you look at Bobby’s CV he had success everywhere. He was an English guy but he was so flexible, so clever and so charismatic that he adapted wherever he went – Portugal, Spain, Holland, it didn’t matter where he was.

“He had so much success in different countries and also with the national team. He was so genuine and so capable of transforming places. That’s what he did at Newcastle. He didn’t spend huge amounts of money but within a couple of years we were challenging for the title again.”

All of which contrasts sharply with the gloom that currently surrounds the club, although four points from their last two matches has lightened the mood to a certain extent.

Barton, who now lives in America and works for Fox Soccer, was on the terraces alongside the Newcastle fans at Carrow Road back in August as the club sank to a 3-1 defeat against the newly promoted Canaries.

The experience couldn’t have been further removed from the one at St James’ Park against Wednesday all those years ago.

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“These fans have been through a lot,” he says. “It’s like they’re getting punched in the stomach every week. There was nothing to get them off their seat, not a lot to give them any hope that this season will be any different.”

Many miles away in Greece, Dabizas also views Newcastle’s current predicament with considerable sadness.

“Bobby knew the way that people in Newcastle wanted their team to play,” he says. “Of course, finance is a very important element to building success but it’s not the only one. There are a lot of examples of club’s over-spending and still not achieving.

“You need financial power but you also have to have the right people running the football club. You have to choose the appropriate manager, the person who best suits the characteristics of Newcastle United.”

Before taking on the role, Sir Bobby had claimed that he bled “black and white”.

A generation on, Newcastle’s fans are singing the blues. With no up-turn in sight.