Bobby dazzled by the jewel that is Jenas

England v Australia: Midfield colt will be 20 on the day his manager is 70, and Robson's gain could also be Sven's

It was Thursday lunchtime at St James' Park. There was no sign yet of the crown jewel expected from Leeds. The gem Sir Bobby Robson prised from Nottingham Forest a year ago was back at "the office", though. The night before, while the Newcastle United board were tabling their £9m bid for Jonathan Woodgate, Jermaine Jenas had been in sparkling form again for Sir Bobby's boys at White Hart Lane, producing another dynamic midfield display and another goal. The last-minute winner that took the Magpies to second top of the Premiership tree was the fourth goal in five games by the coltish 19-year-old.

"J J wins his spurs," the headline in the Evening Chronicle proclaimed. And in his 12 months on Tyneside "J J" has certainly done that. As his manager put it: "Jermaine's assets are invaluable to us. He can pass beautifully; he's good in the air; he can get his foot in when defending; and he has a marvellous engine. He never seems to tire. People want me to compare him with other big-name midfielders but I don't have to. He is his own man, with his own influence on the game."

He might be a man now on the Premiership football stage but Jenas is still a teenager. He turns 20 on 18 February, the day of Robson's 70th birthday. "Yes, it's quite incredible that we were born on the same day," Jenas mused, barely recognisable in the bowels of St James', with a brown woollen hat pulled down to his eyebrows. "We've got a big game in the Champions' League that night, in Leverkusen. Hopefully, on our birthday, we'll be able to come home happy."

It is a measure of how far Jenas has come that he is already a veteran of four big games in the Champions' League. Before the start of last season he had played just one First Division game for Forest. It is another mark of his progress that the England coach Sven Goran Eriksson made the trek to St James' Park to watch him play against Bolton Wanderers two weeks ago. Jenas scored the winner that day and gave another first-class exhibition of the link-man's art. It would be no surprise if his name were to appear in Eriksson's party for the friendly fixture against Australia at Upton Park on 12 February.

Not that Jenas is getting carried away by the burgeoning expectation and hype. He happens to be as serene a character off the pitch as he is in the thick of the action on it. "I think a lot of me comes from the grounding my mum and dad gave me," he said. "I try to stick to the same morals and values and take life one step at a time. No need to get a rush on."

But then, judging from the speed of his galloping box-to-box runs, young Jermaine has inherited the fast-twitch fibres that made his father one of the quickest centre-forwards in non-League football. Dennis Jenas played for Burton Albion and Grantham Town. He coaches in Albuquerque now.

"We keep in contact a lot, though," his son said. "He's delighted with the way things have been going for me." And with good reason, too. Jenas junior made a favourable impression as a wide-right stand-in for Nolberto Solano earlier in the season, but it is in his favoured central midfield role that he has been really flourishing of late. Twelve months on from his First Division days with Forest, he has played in direct opposition to Edgar Davids in the Stadio delle Alpi, made 41 first-team appearances for Newcastle and has established himself at the creative hub of a Newcastle side challenging for the club's first title since the sepia days of 1927.

"That's what I was hoping to do, to be honest with you," he said. "I didn't come to the club just to sit around and wait for things to happen. When you're at a big club like this, and you're in the the Champions' League and you see what you actually can achieve as a young player, you have to go for it. The gaffer has given me the chances and when I've been in the team hopefully I've done well. It's brilliant when you can play against the likes of Edgar Davids and Alessandro del Piero at such a young age. It can only help your development. Obviously the gaffer here has helped my development a lot in the past year – little things like making runs into the box, and winning headers. Training with high-quality players day after day has helped a lot too. To play at the level that we're at, you've got to develop your game day in, day out."

That Jenas has been able to step up seamlessly to the highest levels of the Premiership and the Champions' League bears testimony to the high-class grounding he received at his hometown club. He was brought up on the Clifton Estate on the outskirts of Nottingham, where Viv Anderson was also raised. He joined Forest at 11, was in the first team at 17 and captain at 18. A product of Paul Hart's youth system, he represented England at every age group from Under-15 to Under- 19 and, since his £5m move to Newcastle, has won six caps at Under-21 level. He got a taste for silverware at Forest, too. As captain of their Under-19 side, Jenas lifted the FA Premier Academy League trophy two years ago.

"I'd definitely like to win something at Newcastle," he said. "We've got a youthful squad that's capable of challenging now and next year and the year after that. Obviously these experiences we're going through now will help us in years to come."

The next experience for Jenas and Newcastle, following the postponement of yesterday's match at Middlesbrough, will be a home game against Arsenal a week today. Manchester United and Chelsea have also yet to visit St James' Park, where Newcastle have won 11 successive Premiership fixtures.

A championship this season is not beyond the bounds of possibility for the unlikely lads, but it is the long-term future that has a glint of trophy-winning promise for the black and whites – the 23-year-old Woodgate having joined the 23-year-old Bellamy, the 24-year-old Dyer, the 20-year-old Viana and the 19-year-old Jenas.

On recent form, the £5m teenager is threatening to emerge as the brightest of all Sir Bobby's dazzlers. It might have all been very different, though. Jenas would never have come to Newcastle had the Forest board accepted a £4m offer they were made 14 months ago. J J, the Geordies' gem, would have gone to Leeds instead.