Bobby's boy Viana an instant hit as the latest Toon idol

The last time West Ham were in Toon plain Bobby Robson, as he still was back then, was in expansive mood. It was the final home match of 2001-02, a season in which Newcastle United had greatly exceeded their not-so-great expectations, finishing fourth in the Premiership and qualifying for the qualifying round of this season's Champions' League.

In the wake of a satisfying 3-1 win and a rousing lap of honour, it was suggested to Robson, in a statement of the bleedin' obvious, that at the age of 69 he still had the appetite for the football management game. "You know what I'm worried about?" he said after some deliberation. "The young team, the bright future I'm going to be leaving for some other lucky bugger."

Four months and one knighthood later, West Ham are back in Toon for a Premiership opener tomorrow night, the Newcastle team are younger and the future is looking even brighter for the lucky blighter who will assume the managerial reins at St James' Park when Sir Bobby's hunger is eventually satisfied.

It remains to be seen whether the £4.5 million signing of the 21-year-old Titus Bramble will solve the thorny issue of Newcastle's lingering central defensive Achilles heel. The pre-season evidence has not been convincing, though there were encouraging signs in Sarajevo on Wednesday night as Bobby's boys emerged 1-0 winners from the opening leg of their Champions' League qualifying tie against the Bosnian club FC Zeljeznicar.

There were further encouraging signs, too, about the increased invigoration of a midfield department already flush with the rich youthful talents of the 19-year-old Jermaine Jenas and the 23-year-old Kieron Dyer.

At a fee of £8.5m, Hugo Viana has eclipsed the £6m that Robbie Keane cost Coventry City from Wolver-hampton Wanderers three years ago as the most expensive teenager in British football history. Signed in June on a five-year contract from Sporting Lisbon, he has already made enough of an impression on Tyneside for Alan Oliver, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle's man on the St James' Park beat, to describe the 19-year-old as reminiscent of "Jim Baxter at his majestic best". At home in Portugal it is with Rui Costa that Viana, a left-sided central midfield player, has been compared – a comparison with which David Platt would probably not argue. It was Viana's high-class scheming that precipitated the downfall of Platt's young England team at the European Under-21 Championships in Switzerland in May.

He scored the third goal in a 3-1 win that put England out of the competition and swept the Portuguese through to the semi-finals. It was a virtuoso performance that also put Viana on a plane to the Far East as a late addition to Portugal's World Cup squad. The teenager did not get to play in Japan and South Korea, though in the wake of his country's first-round exit the young man from the north-west market town of Barcelos seems destined to be involved in Portugal's Euro 2004 campaign on home soil. He already has four senior caps and is likely to win his fifth against England at Villa Park on 7 September.

By then, the Newcastle new boy will have had a chance to make an impression in the Premiership – if not as a replacement for Gary Speed, who missed the Zeljeznicar game with an injured ankle, then as a stand-in wide on the left of midfield for Laurent Robert, who has a more serious back problem.

"My number one priority this season is to establish myself in the Newcastle team," Viana said last week. "I cannot presume to say that I am going to be in the side, but I like the way the coach has us playing our football and I want to be part of it. Bobby Robson is well known and respected in Portugal after his success with Porto and Sporting Lisbon. I am sure I will learn a lot from him and I hope that I develop into the player he expects me to be."

It is not only Robson who expects Viana to develop into a senior player of considerable stature. Last month Viana was voted Europe's Young Player of the Year by the coaches of Italy's Serie A clubs. "I think that tells you something about his quality," Robson said. "He's a boy with immense talent and potentially he could be a frightening player. We have to help him realise that potential at Newcastle. He has a big chance and he's a player for our future. We have not bought Hugo for the next five weeks. We have bought him for the next five years, and I hope that he is here for twice as long as that. He is only 19, but he is talented, quick and left-footed, with lovely passing ability. He has also got a great attitude.

"He first came to my attention last Christmas. I was told, thanks to some of my old contacts at Sporting Lisbon, that there was a kid coming through there who would be a fantastic player. The chairman did well for me because he worked at the deal, burned the midnight oil and paid the money. Both Liverpool and Celta Vigo were in for him so we had to move quickly. I spoke to Gérard Houllier just recently and he was livid that we got Hugo ahead of him."

It might not have had the drama of those classic 4-3 defeats, but on Tyneside it was a heartening pre-season result: Newcastle 1 Liverpool 0.