Sir Bobby Robson… 1933-2009
July 31st, 2009 | Author: admin
The sad news broke earlier today that Sir Bobby Robson had lost his battle against cancer. The former England manager will be missed not just in the North East, but across the world. Sir Bobby brought success to each club he graced – PSV, Porto, Barcelona, Ipswich, Newcastle and as our national manager, guiding the Three Lions to a World Cup semi-final in 1990.
Biography
Born in Sacriston, County Durham, Sir Bobby Robson started his football career at his local team Langley Park. As a child, Robson’s father (a coal minor) regularly took Bobby to St James Park to see his heroes Jackie Milburn and Len Shackleton. Both players where influential is Bobby deciding to become a striker when he started his professional career.
At Langley Park Robson attracted interest from Middlesbrough and Newcastle but he decided a move to London in Fulham was a more attractive move. His reason being “Newcastle made no appreciable effort to secure [my] signature”. He spent six years at Fulham scoring 68 goals in 152 appearances, before moving to West Brom for a club record £25,000 in 1956. Bobby spent six year at the Baggies, with his second season proving most successful as top scorer in the 57-58 campaign. He went on to play 257 games and score 61 goals for West Bromwich Albion and captained the team for the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons. Robson made a return to Fulham FC. His second spell at the club was less prolific and after five years Sir Bobby was offered the player-manager job at Vancouver Royals which he accepted. However following complications, he made his way back to Fulham a year later installed as manager.
Bobby only spent 6 months at Fulham in1968 and was sacked after he was unable to prevent relegation. He however moved onto Ipswich, where he would spend 13 successful years. Dur ing his tenure he won the FA Cup in 1978 and the Uefa Cup in 1981 and spent only five of his 13 sea sons out side division ones top 6. He brought in only 14 players in 13 years, concentrating on Ipswich’s youth development.
After gaining recognition as one of the countries finest manager at Ipswich Sir Bobby was offered The job as England Manager. Bobby reign as England manager could have potentially been short-lived when his team failed to make the 1984 European Championship. As a result he offered to leave England in favour of Brian Clough but his request was rejected, thankfully this turned out to be a good move for the FA. His first taste of International football was in the 1986 World Cup. He guided his team to the quarter finals against Argentina where the difference between England and Argentina was Maradona’s hand. “It wasn’t the hand of God. It was the hand of a rascal. God had nothing to do with it.”
Robson’s defining moment as England manager came in the 1990 finals. Sir Bobby took the national team to the semis where West Germany knocked out England on penalties, - Robson has since said that “not a day goes by when [he] does not think about the semi-final and other choices [he] might have made”. A replay of this match was replayed a few days ago in aid of Sir Bobby Robson’s Foundation.
After his England stint Robson decided he needed a new challenge, this came in the shape of continental football – He moved to the Netherlands to manage PSV Eindhoven. Robson described the move as “a culture shock” but felt “…a sense of adventure.” But he adjusted well by winning the Dutch league in both the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons. Next Robson moved to Sporting assisted by a young and unspoken interpreter by the name of José Mourinho. He guided Sporting to third in the table in his first season and to the top of the table half way through his season season. Despite this he was sacked on the grounds that they failed to impress in the Uefa Cup.
Robson was quickly snapped up by Porto where he appointed Mourinho as his assistant. Porto were in a poor state when Robson arrived and the average attendance had dwindled to 10,000, but he managed to win back to back leauge titles as well as a cup win against former side Sporting.
Such was the impact of Robson at Porto, he became known to the locals as “Bobby Five-O” in honour of the number of matches Porto won 5–0 and soon europe’s elite started sniffing for his signature, and soon enough he became manager of Barcelona. Again he brought José Mourinho with him as his assistant and again he brought success. One of the key decisions Robson made during his brief tenure at Barcelona was the $19.5 million signing of Ronaldo who was influential when Barcelona won the Spanish Cup, Spanish Super Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup. Robson himself was voted European Manager of the Year for 1996–97, while Ronaldo stated, “as a trainer without doubt [Robson] is one of the greatest in the world”. The following season Robson moved up to general Manager at Barca for a year before moving back to PSV for one final year as a continental manager.
Then for the moment Sir Bobby had dreamt of, to take charge of the team he had supported his whole life. He took over from the sacked Ruud Gullit at Newcastle United in the summer 1999. He couldn’t have wished for a better start with his first match in charge Newcastle thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 8-0, that season Newcastle finished 11th. In the 01-02 season Sir Bobby guided Newcastle to fourth in the league despite a bad start to the year. In the following year he steered Newcastle to third place and a shot at Champions League football. Unfortunately they didn’t make it through to the group stages, but they did reach the semi-final of the UEFA cup where a Mr Drogba spoiled the party. That season ended with a fifth place finish, however at the start of the following year Sir Bobby Robson lost his job at St James’ Park.
What Sir Bobby had achieved at every club he managed was phenomenal. After leaving Newcastle at the age of 71 he made the decision not to go back into management and to end his managerial career at the most appropriate place. Across the footballing world Sir Bobby Robson is held in high regard and has been given many honours including the Lifetime Achievement Award from BBC Sports Personality, he has been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame, given the freedom of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Durham and Ipswich and only five days ago he was awarded by UEFA the Emerald UEFA Order of Merit award, awarded to “individuals who have dedicated their talents to the good of the game.
Quite a character Sir Bobby and football will miss him. From everyone at In The Stands our condolences go to his family.
This video is perhaps the best visual biography out there currently, detailing Sir Bobby’s life.
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