SEBASTIEN Bassong is crying his eyes out at a season-destroying defeat. In the background, Didier Digard celebrates a crucial victory. It is the Newcastle United fans’ nightmare, the possibility which keeps Middlesbrough dreams alive.

But it is not the stuff of pure fantasy. It happened when the friends were teenagers and, although Bassong might be grown up enough to keep his tears to himself now, the stakes are so much higher the television cameras are sure to find more than one sobbing Geordie if he is on Monday’s losing side.

So Bassong must hope his encounter with Boro midfielder Digard does not go the way of their first.

“I remember an Under-16 Youth Cup quarter-final, he was playing for Metz and I was at Le Havre,” says Digard. “We won and his team were crying afterwards. After Monday, I hope it is him who is crying. When we hooked up for the France Under-21s, I reminded him of that game.

“We do have a laugh with each other, but perhaps not right now because of the situations we are in. He is certainly not going to be my mate on the pitch on Monday.”

Bragging rights seem an important part of a relationship which adds another personal touch to a match with repercussions throughout the North East. “Didier is my good friend,” says Bassong, one of the few Newcastle players to have furthered his reputation this season. “Sometimes he comes up to mine, I go down to his, or we pick up the phone. We went to Clairefontaine (the French national academy), we played for the under-21s, but even before that we used to play against each other.

“We ring each other all the time, I will take the mickey out of him, he will take the mickey out of me.”

The laughing stops on Monday. With Arsenal monitoring his progress, it is hard to envisage Bassong playing anywhere other than the Premier League next season, regardless of United’s fate.