In the world of Premiership football, fans have become inured to foreign players coming and going as the carousel of transfer deals endlessly revolves. Many foreign imports do not form particularly strong bonds with the locals. The grief on Tyneside after the death of Pavel Srnicek shows that he was a notable exception.
He was no superstar. A goalkeeper who joined Newcastle United from provincial Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s, he struggled initially and never secured an automatic place in the team. Yet he eventually played nearly 200 games and also appeared 49 times for his country. At times he was brilliant, earning praise from goalkeeping greats such as Gordon Banks. At other times he dropped clangers, to the despair of his managers. He was