If there's one thing that Freddie Shepherd should be held accountable for more than anything else from his time as Newcastle's chairman, it's the dismissal of Sir Bobby Robson, whose "failure" was nothing less than coming fifth in the league. Robson had saved Newcastle from near certain relegation, picking up a club left in a heap at the bottom of the table by Ruud Gullit's classless "sexy" football, and announced the return of the Entertainers with an 8-0 thumping of Sheffield Wednesday. He never over-spent, even if some of his transfer dealings were better than others, he qualified for the Champions League within two years of the club facing relegation and he got the side playing the kind of football Newcastle fans love the most. It's one of the great shames of football that Sir Bobby wasn't able to win anything for his boyhood side, but there was nothing light in the decision to put his statue outside the stadium.
