Chops will be victim of the boo boys but it could have been so different had Sir Bobby stayed
When Michael Chopra burst on to the scene as a raw goalscoring talent from the reserves and youth team ranks back in 2002 I have to say I was hopeful that the long-term future after Alan Shearer would be in safe hands.
His emergence at around the same time as Wayne Rooney, who had exploded into the Premier League with a blistering strike past Arsenal's David Seaman, came under the guidance of one of the life's best man to man managers in Sir Bobby Robson.
Sir Bobby understood each of his players and knew exactly how to make them tick and get the very best out of them, sadly those type of managers do not grow on trees and are few and far between.
Sir Bobby worked with all of the tough characters during his time and managed to get the best out of trickier characters then Chopra such as Kieron Dyer and Craig Bellamy to name just two.
When Sir Bobby sent Chopra out on loan to Watford that was probably the correct decision after he'd been handed the taste of first team life at Newcastle with Champions League football thrown in during the 02/03 campaign.
In August 2004 he was sent to Barnsley for the season and netted 17 goals but while he was doing the business against for the Tykes, Sir Bobby had gone and been replaced by Graeme Souness, arguably the start of Newcastle's decline at top level.
The Scot could not nurture that early promise of Chopra properly.
And despite a brief revival - under Glenn Roeder - that included his only goal against Sunderland in the 4-1 thumping of the Mackems, that was as good as it got for Chopra in a black and white shirt, unless you deem goals against Cheltenham and the mighty Dubnica as bigger.
Whenever he has been at Cardiff he's never let anybody down and while talk that he has found his level are perhaps cruel, he is something that Newcastle United don't have right now - a proven goalscorer at Championship level.
Of course he played for Sunderland in between and we probably should have been thankful to him for that miss last season in the 1-1 draw with the Wearsiders.
He will inevitably be booed tonight at St James' Park.
But while Chopra will get a rocky ride tonight, I won't be able to help thinking once again, just what might have been had Chopra had a chance to blossom under Sir Bobby Robson if Newcastle had have backed their manager rather than sticking the knife in him.
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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I couldn't agree more, he showed great potential all those years ago and it was just an extremely frustrating chain of events that started to damage our club that meant it didn't work out. I don't blame Chopra, he could have been a great for us but we let him down just as much as he did to us by going to Sunderland, good luck to him in his future (just not tonight!! ).
Ryder's reply: Some good points well put. What people seem to forget is this blog, my match reports, the star marks that we give out on a Monday and many other articles are simply my opinion and my take on things from the vantage point that I'm in.
People may well disagree or agree with them and are welcome to put their own opinion here as well, whether you have been to one away game in your life or you go to every single game.
sorry Lee but i have to completely disagree with this column.
i saw chopra for the first time when he came on as a sub against Everton and i knew then he wasnt in the same league as shearer...he missed an open goal!!
Getting rid of him was the right thing to do, he hardly set the world alight with Sunderland and what were we supposed to do?
hold onto him in case we had got relegated?
and he wont ever be a top class striker because he bottled it against us last year!
He scores CCC goals aplenty and his work rate is high. We could have done with him this season despite him not being top drawer.
Also he is a fan and that alone should mean he isn't booed, but of course he will be sadly!
Much as I love SBR, let's not go overboard. Hugo Viana, Carl Cort, Clarence Acuna, Shola, Titus...
this column shows how clueless lee ryder is,chopra is useless and 4 managers didnt even play him along with garbage like ameobi (who has scrounged millions off this club)rubbish local lads when are some of these clueless younger fans going to get it.
aye dave whens these "clueless younger fans" going to have the same opinion as you eh? eeeeee aahh divinah
(probly when they turn into misrible awld b@st?rds like yourself)
1 sad fact is Stephen Glass looked like a great player, to me i thought he might be the new peter beardsley the way he looked for shearer all the time very unselfesh. he was out injured and came back under SBR and just died of death, sadly. SBR had his favs and that was that. (to be fair they came back and bit him on the backside adn i'm very glad they've all been shown the door now).
we'd all love chopra to be putting them in for the toon but some people just can't play aswell on a big stage, i don't think it has anything to do with ability its more to do with nerves and focus. Chopra and Aminotsurewhereishouldbe have both found their level in the CCC. Hands up if they'd like to see the 2 of them leading our front line if we get back to the PL??????