It is fantastic to see Sir Bobby Robson back on his feet, limping, but smiling and talking to anyone who will listen about all things football.
After his recent stroke - suffered as he watched former club Ipswich Town play at Portman Road - the return to relative health of one of the best-loved figures in English football will have raised the spirits of everyone who remembers what he did for the national side, as well as Newcastle United.
But none will have been more pleasantly surprised than Freddie Shepherd to see his former manager back on the beat because Robson has stunned most observers by appearing to back the embattled Newcastle supremo who sacked him just four games and two defeats into the 2004/5 season after three successive top five finishes in the Premiership.
In his column in a Sunday tabloid, Robson claimed Mr Shepherd could not be blamed for all the problems at St James's Park, instead indicating that the absent Hall family were the real villians of the soap opera.
Does this mean Shepherd and Robson have kissed and made up and does it have major implications for the future of the club?
It is no secret that Shepherd wants to cling to power and there are rumours that a North-East based consortium is being put together to buy-out Sir John Hall and his son Douglas, rather than allow a hostile takeover from the faceless Belgravia Investment Group to succeed.
One thing Robson and Shepherd share is a deep sense of regional pride and identity and I wonder whether Robson could become the public relations figurehead for a group of North-East investors, including Shepherd, who will take the club into private, but local, ownership?
Of course, this is all a elaborate theory and I don't have much in the way of facts, but it is an interesting one nonetheless.
Watch this space and others! I'm back at work tomorrow!
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