THEY have a mythical quality, football talent scouts, those men of the touchline or slightly further back. By nature theirs is a secretive profession, the garnering of facts and impressions about boys as young as nine or 10, the quiet word in a parent's ear.
There is fear too, fear that a rival might get in first, or that a boy given a high recommendation might not make the grade or might not get the breaks.
Until Monday Alan Shearer never got the right breaks at St James' Park. As a teenager he had had a trial with Newcastle only to find himself put in goal for two days even though "I told them I was a centre forward," he later recalled ruefully. But Newcastle's scouts had not been the only ones to have noticed Shearer's abilities and another of those inscrutable watchers from the sidelines, Jack Hixon, had been monitoring Shearer's progress at Wallsend Boys.
The famous club had produced Peter Beardsley, Paul Gascoigne and Lee Clark for Newcastle but Shearer was to move on to Cramlington Juniors. Hixon, who eventually arranged Shearer's move to Southampton, had kept tabs on the player, and the two had struck up an immediate rapport on their first meeting.
"Ever since I first met him we have become very close friends," said Hixon. "Alan has expressed the sentiment that I am like family to him and that means an awful lot to me."
The closeness of their relationship was recognised by Shearer's father who still maintains that his son did not sign for Southampton - but for Hixon. And when the time came for Hixon to ask Shearer senior if his son could go for a trial - down south the father's reply was: "Ask him yourself he's old enough to make up his own mind."
Professionally Shearer never looked back, but as he insisted on Monday, privately he hankered for a return to the north east. His continuing friendship with Hixon is evidence of that. Even though the age gap is 50 years - Hixon his 75 - there has been a daily phone call for years.
"He rings me every day, usually from his car," said Hixon. "He must have a huge phone bill but I suppose he can afford it now. When he told me about the offer over the weekend I was elated."
If Shearer has become Hixon's most famous recruit he is far from his first and may not be the last. Hixon has been scouting for decades now, ever since he left the Royal Navy with his best mate, the Burnley and England player Billy Elliot.
Hixon was best man at Elliott's wedding and when Elliott arrived at Burnley he asked Hixon to add some scouting from the northeast. A move to Southampton followed and today Hixon is retained by Ipswich.
There are undoubtedly more names tucked away in Hixon's mind and yesterday he was back on the touchlines of Sunderland doing what he does best and likes most: watching football, carefully.
