It's hard to over-state how good the decision was to prize Rob Lee away from Charlton in 1992, and more than 300 performances later, few could have argued that he wasn't worth at least ten times what Kevin Keegan paid for him. Allegedly sold a move to Tyneside by Keegan's claims that it was closer to London than Middlesbrough (untrue - he said it was easier to get back there) Lee was the lynch-pin of King Kev's Entertainers. While Peter Beardsley and Rob Lee were the goal-scorers, Lee was the midfield general who had in hand in both of their prolific scoring rates. Without him, the Entertainers wouldn't have worked. From those early days, Lee grew in stature at the heart of Newcastle's engine room, earning not only the captaincy but also the plaudits from Keegan, who named him the Best Midfielder In Britain. And even after Ruud Gullit attempted to put him out to pasture, Lee returned, reinvented as a defensive midfielder and continued to play a key role under Sir Bobby Robson.
