Toward the end of the documentary ‘BOBBY ROBSON – MORE THAN A MANAGER‘ (directors Gabriel Clarke/Torquil Jones, 99 mins, 2018) Gary Lineker makes the claim ‘for me Bobby Robson is the greatest English manager of all time.’
It’s a theory, although the amount of trophies won by Bob Paisley and Brian Clough among others, suggest otherwise – yet in terms of plaudits for the attractive manner in which his teams played the game, Sir Bobby Robson was as successful as they come.
In the course of this affectionately made film, former players who played under Robson, including Pep Guardiola, Ronaldo, Alan Shearer, Terry Butcher, Paul Gascoigne and Lineker, convey the esteem in which he was held, as much for his man-management skills as tactical acumen.
They often refer to his calmness and dignity, qualities he displayed in abundance when dealing with appalling treatment at the hands of the tabloid press – and were evident again as Robson faced a succession of cancer-related illnesses that would take his life at the age of 76 in July 2009.
Concentrating for the most part on his 35 year career in management, as a player Robson, from Langley Park in County Durham, played for Fulham (in two spells) and West Bromwich Albion, winning twenty England caps.
Beginning with a short managerial reign at Fulham, which is not referred to in the piece, Robson was appointed manager of Ipswich Town in 1969 – although the documentary actually starts in 1995 when he is manager of Portuguese club Porto, Robson diagnosed with a malignant melanoma, the diagnosis coming with the need for urgent and painful facial surgery.
Five years on from his eight year reign as England manager and twelve months before taking charge of Barcelona, (both episodes naturally covered at length in the documentary), one suspects the job Robson derived most satisfaction from was his reign at Portman Road.
During a thirteen tenure, he established Ipswich as a top six club, their positive, entertaining style of play yielding an FA Cup triumph in 1978 and UEFA Cup success three years later.
In discussing these achievements at Ipswich, Sir Alex Ferguson makes the first of several moving tributes to Robson, whose character is extolled in equally touching fashion by Jose Mourinho, who served as assistant to Robson at Sporting Lisbon, a role he then reprised at the Nou Camp.
Taking the England job in the summer of 1982 with the intention of winning the World Cup, the tournaments of 1986 and 1990, culminating in quarter-final and semi-final defeats against Argentina and West Germany respectively, are revisited with all ‘Maradona, Hand of God‘ and ‘beaten on penalties‘ connotations covered – Butcher confirming Robson’s strict sense of fair play had been deeply offended by the actions of Maradona.
‘It wasn’t the hand of God,’ remarked Robson, seemingly unable to use the ‘cheat‘ epithet uttered by several of his players, ‘it was the hand of a rascal.’
The semi-final defeat to West Germany at Italia 90 was his last match in charge of the national team, the FA already having made their intention known of not renewing his contract when the tournament was over.
For his part, Robson had agreed prior to heading for Italy with England to take charge of Dutch club PSV Eindhoven – for which he was lambasted by sections of the press, the ‘traitor‘ headlines as despicable as they were unwarranted and particularly hurtful to a man unwavering in his patriotism.
Acknowledging he was caught in a ‘tabloid war‘ of which the objective appeared to be who could come up with the most crass headline relating to Robson (his successor Graham Taylor, if anything, was to suffer even worse treatment).
True, failure to qualify for the 1984 European Championships and three abject performances at the finals of the 1988 tournament warranted criticism of tactics and selection – but the vilification of such a personal nature he received went far beyond the pale, Robson vindicated when England reached the last four of the 1990 World Cup, their best showing since becoming world champions in 1966.
During the first half of the 90s he won domestic honours when managing clubs in Holland and Portugal – although his two most significant club appointments still lay ahead.
Jose Mourinho, Bobby Robson and Ronaldo win the European Cup Winners Cup with Barcelona;
In 1996, he was appointed manager of Barcelona, Robson moving quickly to sign Brazilian striker Ronaldo from PSV whose goalscoring feats were key to Barca winning three trophies in 1996-97 – an achievement that saw Robson named ‘UEFA Coach of the Year‘ in 1997.
Two years later he returned to England and his North-East roots to manage Newcastle United, the club he had supported as a boy.
Wife Elsie described the move as ‘completing the circle‘ but according to Newcastle captain Shearer, ‘the club was in turmoil, the dressing room spirit broken and he was the only man who could save it. He saved Newcastle and my career.’
Under Robson Newcastle, bottom of the Premier League when he was appointed, made steady progress, qualifying for the Champions League in 2002 and 2003.
Despite finishing fifth and reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 2004, Robson was relived of his duties three weeks into the 2004-05 season, Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd citing a lack of discipline among an element of the first team squad. (In the documentary Shearer refers to ‘a group of young players with too much money and a lack of respect.’)
According to Elsie Robson, her husband was ‘heartbroken‘ at being sacked, a decision which appeared ill-judged at the time, even more so when Newcastle floundered through the next couple of seasons, a manager of Robson’s experience surely capable of straightening out the unruly group.
Having been a cancer sufferer, sadly he would be diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007, Sir Bobby Robson (having been knighted in 2002), spent much of his post football-management life fundraising for research into cures – the Sir Bobby Robson unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle now a leading cancer treatment ward.
Of the many fond evocations of Robson contained in ‘More Than A Manager‘ the one most resonant in defining him comes from former Dutch international Frank Arneson, who served as first team coach when Robson was manager of PSV.
‘One day during a coaching session at the PSV training ground, which is in a lovely location,’ states Arneson, ‘Bobby stopped things and called the players to him. “Look at the trees he said, look at the sky and the sunshine, take it in for a moment – and remember how lucky you are to be doing this. There are people working in factories right now, who’d love to be doing what you are.”‘
Sir Bobby Robson was in thrall to football, a true believer not just in its capacity to excite, but how it could be played with decency – yet as the game becomes ever more mired in greed and petulance, it seems doubtful we shall see his like again.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is also the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available now in paperback and an Amazon Kindle book.