A MEMBER OF Newcastle United’s staff phoned me about four years ago when I was living in Paris to ask my opinion of Laurent Robert. I said: “Outstanding left foot, bit of pace, exceptional creativity. But his temperament . . .” I had watched a French Cup final in which Robert, playing for Paris Saint-Germain, was substituted. He jogged straight down the tunnel and that stuck in my mind. You’ re in a cup final and you can’t even watch the last 20 minutes from the bench?

Newcastle signed him anyway, a decision Graeme Souness probably regrets to judge from his anger at Robert’s critical comments about the side last week. But it looks like the winger was right: Newcastle have regressed. Last season they finished fifth in the Premiership, now they’ll be lucky to make the top half. Recent good results have just been a veneer masking deep problems. Newcastle are always an accident waiting to happen and yesterday ’s 4-1 thrashing by Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final, combined with the Uefa Cup loss to Sporting Lisbon and Robert’s criticism, make these a very accident-prone past few days.

Anonymous yesterday even though his manager had dropped him from the squad to face Sporting, Robert is the latest player Souness has made an example of, after Patrick Kluivert, Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer. Some players roll up their sleeves when they’re not wanted, others shrug their shoulders. I tried harder at Chelsea when Glenn Hoddle shunned me, but then my career was on the line. Robert, Kluivert, Bellamy — they all know they can find another club with ease.

I can understand Souness making a stand, wanting to stamp his authority on the club and demanding a radical change in attitude. I accept that the dressing-room at St James’ Park is a nightmarish collection of egos. But when you walk into a minefield you don’t start chucking grenades. You can’t treat everyone the same way. Roy Keane may not need an arm round the shoulder; Robert does. Whether you’re an office manager or a football manager, you need to be shrewd and adaptive.

Double standards? So be it. Different rules for different people, if you think it’s for the good of the club. Manipulate them, sweet-talk them, make them believe that they have a future. Then get rid of them in the summer if you want, not halfway through the season when you still rely on them, when you are on the brink of cup success and you need to coax that little bit extra from them. Note how troublesome players vanish from Arsenal and Manchester United during close-seasons with the minimum of fuss.

Look how well Sir Alex Ferguson handled Eric Cantona. Once or twice, even Ferguson has backed down in the face of a training-ground tirade directed at him from Keane. Not because he’s weak, but because he knows his captain needs to let off steam and sometimes tense moments need to be defused, not ignited.

It was a mistake not to put Robert in the squad against Sporting because he’s the kind of player who can turn a game. He’s an enigma, a match-winner, and Alan Shearer benefits from better service when he’s in the team.

Sure, Robert isn’t the best defensively, as yesterday underlined, but you can’t blame Newcastle’s failings at the back on Robert. It goes far deeper than that. They were at sixes and sevens every time Manchester United attacked.

Far too many British managers take criticism personally. It’s not like that on the Continent, where players often speak out but managers just rise above it. Even if others mouth off, sometimes you have to bite your lip for the good of the team, play it cool.

It’s like Michael Corleone’s famous line from The Godfather, “It’s strictly business”. Souness has made his management personal. And given the kind of personalities hanging around that Newcastle dressing-room, was it really wise? There’s plenty of justification for the manager wanting to tear Newcastle apart and start again. But he should have waited until the end of the season before setting the wrecking ball in motion. No point holding back now: to all intents and purposes, Newcastle’s season ended yesterday.