Charlie Crowe’s tragedy is a sad reminder

Mar 8 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

HOW cruelly poignant — or should that be poignantly cruel? — that Charlie Crowe is stricken by Alzheimer’s Disease.

The idea that Newcastle United’s last remaining Wembley hero of 1951 might struggle to recall his finest hour is, first and foremost, a very personal tragedy.

But it also carries a horrible resonance across a city in which footballing success is a stranger.

Not only have United’s fans forgotten what it is to win a trophy, they have a job remembering what it is like to hope to win a trophy.

Of course, fear of relegation pales into near-insignificance next to Crowe’s plight, not to mention his family’s crusade to fund a new scanner capable of speeding research into his all-too-common condition.

Yet it’s a fear Charlie — still more poignantly, he is a lifelong Newcastle fan — would doubtless share.

The question is, does he share it with the players who now carry the hopes, dreams — and fears — of his fellow Geordies?

While some earn 10 or 20 fold in a day what Crowe was paid in a year (around £700), I only hope they care half as much as he did.

When they live behind security gates and beneath CCTV cameras, it’s little wonder the stars of today struggle to treat those two imposters, triumph and disaster, just the same.

There was no hiding place for players back in ‘51.

To the common fan, Crowe and co were the guys next door, not out of sight on millionaires’ row.

And yet the tale of that FA Cup-winning team could teach the current Newcastle dressing room — which, let’s face it, features one or two imposters — about triumph in adversity.