Remembering Sir Bobby Robson

One of football's modern managerial legends and great enthusiasts passed away seven years ago today. Sir Bobby Robson's influence still endures to the top of the game today: Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are his direct disciples. I had the privilege of interviewing Sir Bobby at two very different points in his career and here's my affectionate personal tribute to him:

Sir Bobby Robson, who lost his long-term battle with cancer aged 76, was a good player but it was his zeal for management which really marked him out. A life truly fulfilled with Ipswich, England, PSV, Sporting, Porto, Barcelona and of course, Newcastle United.

During his England days.

He nurtured players to greatness from Romario to Ronaldo; from Gazza to Gary. And if that's not enough, Mourinho and Guardiola, two of the most feted coaches in the world game were cultivated by the great man.

I had the pleasure to interview Sir Bobby with both England and Newcastle. He was the man who crafted Gazza into a senior England performer despite having branded him "daft as a brush". Backing Gazza to step up to the plate was a gamble at the time, but the boss was trusting and generous with ability. He was instantly rewarded as Gazza struck twice in a 4-2 win over Czechoslovakia, the first international I covered for radio.

Sir Bobby was already of pensionable age at Newcastle; he had a great contract and with nothing to prove, the pressure was off. The job was a labour of love. His enthusiasm was so infectious, I smiled with him during our live interview on Prem Plus and he increasingly chuckled back at me. His answers were so long, I had to switch from arm to outstretched oxygen-starved arm to keep the mike under his chin!

Sir Bobby was still on the ball in his Newcastle days

Sir Bobby was famed for mix-ups. On England duty, he wished Bryan Robson a cheery "Morning Bobby!", Bryan dutifully replied "You're Bobby, I'm Bryan, boss!". At Newcastle, Shola Ameobi claimed the boss dubbed him "Carl Cort".

But a less well-known story was relayed to me by former Chelsea and Queen's Park Rangers defender, Steve Wicks.

Wicks had just completed the best season of his career at Loftus Road and had been picked for an England B international in Mexico just months before the 1986 World Cup. Bobby was still pondering the 22-man squad he was going to take to the Finals with rumours that 3 or 4 places were still up for grabs. To add tension to the B game, the boss was going to pick the last available places from the best performers. He popped down to the England dressing room before kick-off to prepare the would-be World Cup stars:

His influence still endures today

"Now, I know you might be nervous 'cos I'm here, but just do your best and good luck to each one of you!", said the England boss.

He then went round the dressing room shaking each of the player's hands with a "good luck son". He arrived at Wicks, an imposing 6 foot 2 inches tall with the physical attributes of a goalkeeper as much as the central defender he was:

"I want you to know son, that you've had a brilliant year... yes, I've monitored you all season!". Wicks couldn't believe it. It sounded like Bobby's mind was made up to take him to the World Cup even before the game had started. "Wow, thanks boss!", Wicks choked out.

"Yes son..... your save at Aston Villa was one of the best I've ever seen!"

In a classic Bobby moment, he'd mixed up Wicks with Woods. Norwich City's Chris Woods, so it was the goalkeeper not the centre-half that went to the Finals.

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I've spoken with a lot of friends and fellow fans and the tributes have been no more heartfelt than that of my friend, Jamie Gould. A Geordie and lifelong Newcastle United fan, who told me this:

"It was so sad to see him decline, but he still made it to matches regardless of the difficulties. It was great that he got to manage Newcastle but he was treated terribly at the end. He was the perfect ambassador for the game - but he was more than a Toon manager, more than an England manager, more than a Barca manager. He was a great man of football generally and, moreso, a great man, a great human being. The loss is surely felt well outside the confines of the football world; even people who never met him will say, hand on heart, 'I loved Sir Bobby Robson'".

The World Cup is amazing so far - enjoy it and don't worry too much about England

The biggest prize

If you like your team to compete but ultimately lose "Eddie Edwards-style", England will fit you like a Cup Final suit.

We've never quite shaken off that "it's the taking part that counts" hint of amateurism that enabled us to export our Beautiful Game to the world.

"We have Barkley, Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson and the Ox for the future", they say. Fearless, talented and if not millionaires already, the Premier League will take care of that within months.

England's future looked bright with Gazza too as we watched the semifinal defeat to Germany at Italia 90. Remember that? It was the last time Daft-As-A-Brush shone on the world stage. 

As for the Liverpool players, let's see how good they are competing in the Champions League. 

They're our England backbone because Fergie retired and Manchester United's youngsters lost their father figure at the same time as Rodgers created his. 

I'm too long in the tooth to worry about England's inevitable defeats. We've sacrificed our national team in favour of the Premier League for two decades, so enjoy your club, whatever its division.

And support England with the same approach English football treats it - as a bit of summer fun.

For all the attention foisted on Roy's boys, club football is the focus in England for the foreseeable future. 

Football's eleventh hour bid to save Gazza

Gazza's appearance shocked football

Paul Gascoigne's last public appearance in Northampton shocked everyone. He's losing his battle with booze and pills. Sleb fans have rushed to his aid and England's players want to offer support too. But Jonny argues that he needs more than that. He needs a reason to live. Someone in football should give him a job.
 
listen to ‘Football's eleventh hour bid to save Gazza’ on Audioboo

 

The writing's on the wall. Someone in football: help Gazza NOW.

The pace of Paul Gascoigne's decline is gathering pace. He's dying live on telly, in newspapers and radio news bulletins. He's burbling to taxi drivers and threatening suicide to hotel staff. Do we need anymore evidence of his struggle with life?

That's unless someone in a position of power in football, does something to help him.

It doesn't mean packing him off to the Priory and picking up the tab. It doesn't mean having him in as a guest in your club or on your show. It means giving him a job in your football club; one that'll give him a reason to live. Something with football at its heart.

Every fan loves him, everyone remembers his exploits. The World Cup semi-final sob, the flute playing at Rangers, the burp into the waiting reporters mike, the Cup semi free-kick which buried Arsenal, the overheated, deranged challenges on Parker and Charles which led to cruciate damage, smashing up the hotel room when Hoddle told him he'd rather have Rob Lee at France 98, The Sun's Dentist Chair and the accompanying celebration at Wembley against the Scots. EVERYTHING he did was wholehearted or funny - and usually both.

That's why someone - at Newcastle, Spurs, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton, Burnley ... or Wolves should give him a job.Gazza loves kids, he loves football; can't someone think laterally? his job could be Youth Team training partner, handshaker, full-time autograph signer. Something that if he's not there one day, you'd shrug and say "don't worry, he'll be back next week". It'd be about giving this troubled man the support he's literally crying for.

Football owes a debt of gratitude to Gazza. He emerged as football did - from the ashes of Bradford and the tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough - to the glory of Italia 90 and then the formation of the Premier League.

It's no co-incidence. People and personalities like him were the catalyst as football emerged from near extinction in the 80's.

George Best died a slow and inevitable death - why does it have to happen again? Gazza, a hero to millions and one of football's biggest figures of the last two decades.

If football people really mean it when they say, "I want to give something back to the game" - they should start by lending Gazza a hand.