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Sir Bobby Robson RIP

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How about the England Team meeting where he calls Bryan Robson "Bobby".
"No boss, I'm Bryan, your Bobby" was Bryans' response.

RIP.
 
Very sad news. A true legend of English football. I hope the FA honour him in the appropriate way.
 
My favourite Bobby story:

Doing a book signing in a city centre, long queue of people waiting for Sir Bob to sign their copy of his autobiography.

Chap gets to the front and as Sir Bob is signing his copy, he starts a bit of chit-chat with his hero:

"I bet you've signed a few today Bobby"

"Yes son, hundreds"

Anyway, chap gets off to the pub and tells his mates he's just got his book signed by the man himself.

Passes the book over and cue laughter from his gathered friends.

Offended, he asks what the problem is and they pass his book back for him to see the writing from Sir Bob:

"All the best,


Bobby Hundreds"


RIP Bobby

A proper decent chap.
 
A true footballing man in every way. A man Shankly would have been proud of, there's very few of those in the game today.

RIP Bobby.
 
[quote author=Herr Onceared link=topic=35005.msg915765#msg915765 date=1249034364]
My favourite Bobby story-

Reporter - 'So Shola your name Ameobi is a tough one to pronounce, especially for Bobby who notoriously struggles with difficult pronounciation does he attemp Ameobi or......what does he call you?'

Shola - 'he calls me Carl Cort'


Lol.
[/quote]

Charlton Cole! He called him Charlton Cole. Brilliant story, brilliant man.
 
David Lacey in the Guardian's tribute


Bobby Robson became the heart that English football wore on its sleeve. Throughout a long career as player and manager his passion for the game refused to be weakened by the inevitable ups and downs and remained as strong as ever during his long fight with cancer.

Robson was a natural fighter. The game would have him on the canvas but he kept coming back for more. In his early days as manager of Ipswich he actually did become involved in a fist fight with two players, Tommy Carroll and Bill Baxter, who objected to being dropped but usually, with Robson, it was less a matter of exchanging punches than showing a steely resolve not to let football's vicissitudes get him down.

Towards the end of his life he became revered a figure in the English game, and a knight to boot, although for much of his time in football he did not come across as a national treasure in the making. His playing career was not distinguished by winner's medals. As he said himself: "In all my time as a footballer I didn't win a thing." As a manager he did not enjoy the success of a Matt Busby or Bill Nicholson let alone a Brian Clough or Alex Ferguson. Not until he managed abroad did he win league titles.

Had Robson retired after taking England to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup he would now be remembered as a manager who twice followed in the footsteps of Alf Ramsey without quite making it all the way. Ramsey won the league with Ipswich in 1962, Robson led them to second place in 1981. Ramsey's England won the World Cup in 1966, Robson's England reached the last four in Italy.

It was Robson's enduring presence in the game, whether abroad as a club manager in Holland, Portugal and Spain or back in this country at Newcastle, or simply as a spectator at St James' Park, that reminded people of the essentially English footballing values which he represented in an age of strong foreign influences on and off the field.

Robson was fiercely proud of England's traditions. As a player he epitomised the virtues of speed, stamina and technical ability which English players were developing in the late 1950s and early sixties once the most important lessons of the heavy defeats Hungary had inflicted on England had been absorbed.

For all the skills of Ferenc Puskas, Nandor Hidegkuti and the others the Hungarians were basically about intuitive movement off the ball and few of Robson's contemporaries had a better sense of space and movement when he was winning his 20 caps, covering much ground as an attacking midfielder and saving the legs of Johnny Haynes. He was considered essential to England's chances of making serious progress in the 1962 World Cup in Chile but suffered an ankle injury in a warm-up game and missed the tournament. England went out to Brazil in the quarter-finals and Robson never won another cap.

He had first attracted international attention as a West Bromwich player, appearing for them 257 times and scoring 61 goals. His playing days began and ended at Fulham and even now the mind's eye can recall the gaunt, vociferous figure urging the team on as they kept escaping relegation in the mid-sixties.

Robson once described Fulham, where he was manager briefly, as "a nice club, a social club, but never a serious championship-challenging club". But for Ramsey it is a description which would have fitted, Ipswich, regarded by its bosses, John and Patrick Cobbold, as a nice place to entertain their friends. Crucially the Cobbolds did not interfere in team matters and Robson had a free hand during his 13 years in charge at Portman Road. In all that time he signed only 14 players from other clubs, preferring to reap the benefits of an outstanding youth scheme.

Not that Robson was averse to change or innovation. Ipswich were among the first to go shopping overseas after the ban on foreign imports was lifted in 1978. By signing Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen from Twente Enschede he added a fresh dimension to the team and the Dutch pair were crucial to the winning of the Uefa Cup in 1981, Ipswich giving what was arguably their finest performance under Robson when they beat a St Etienne side which included Michel Platini and Johnny Rep 4-1 in the away leg of their quarter-final.

Robson could get angry but it never lasted long. His occasional spats with reporters were quickly forgotten. He was never one to hold a grudge. During the 1990 World Cup his fiercest critics were among those who gave him a farewell lunch in Sardinia. And Robson did suffer some vitriolic criticism shortly before England left for Italy.

Following some ancient kiss-and-tell revelations in a newspaper Bert Millichip, the chairman of the Football Association, as good as told Robson his contract would not be renewed after the tournament. Robson wasted no time getting himself fixed up with PSV Eindhoven for the new season and was labelled a deserter by the more hysterical sections of the press.

Yet when England returned home after losing to the Germans on penalties in the Turin semi-final a large crowd at Luton Airport greeted Robson with loud cheers. He had left the country a condemned man but came back a hero of sorts.

Nothing quite became Robson as his calm reaction to the way England went out of the 1986 World Cup to Argentina when they lost to Diego Maradona's fiendish handball and quite outrageous prance through the best part of an entire team. When any losing manager could have been forgiven for spitting blood Robson kept his cool although he was to reflect later that "it wasn't the Hand of God, it was the hand of a rascal. God had nothing to do with it".

His time on the switchback of the European coaching circuit was followed by the move to Newcastle, whose fans had spat on him after he dropped Kevin Keegan on taking over the England squad from Ron Greenwood on 1982. Under Robson Newcastle finished fourth, third and fifth in the Premier League so naturally they sacked him. By then he was well into the struggle with cancer and despite the manner of his departure as manager it was fitting that he should watch his last matches at the home ground of his boyhood heroes, Jackie Milburn and Len Shackleton.

A football man to the last, Bobby Robson, and an England football man through and through.
Click to expand...
 
Like Bob Paisley, he had no need to resort to idle boasts, childish insults and 'mind games'. He didn't impugn the integrity of others and he didn't use hate as a motivational tool. He just loved the game as a game and treated everyone else as he expected to be treated himself. There's nothing necessarily 'bygone' about that as behaviour, but fewer bother to attempt it.
 
[quote author=gkmacca link=topic=35005.msg915820#msg915820 date=1249037424]
Like Bob Paisley, he had no need to resort to idle boasts, childish insults and 'mind games'. He didn't impugn the integrity of others and he didn't use hate as a motivational tool. He just loved the game as a game and treated everyone else as he expected to be treated himself. There's nothing necessarily 'bygone' about that as behaviour, but fewer bother to attempt it.
[/quote]Hear Hear! That other famous football 'Sir' has done a lot to destroy that kind of respect in football.
 
[quote author=Anita link=topic=35005.msg915749#msg915749 date=1249033457]
Very sad, one of the last true gents of the game. May be rest in peace, prayers and thoughts to loved ones.
[/quote]

the number of gentlemen in football can be counted on one hand. In the last 10years there was only one true gent
 
A true gent and someone who won the utmost respect from fans of all teams. It should be remembered also he was very gracious towards Liverpool - a team he admired and often commented upon.

'Managers have to be like actors at times and Rafa Benitez deserves an Oscar for his half-time performance in the dressing room during the Champions League Final. His half-time performance when all was lost in Istanbul was the most astonishing of the whole amazing night." Sir Bobby Robson saluting Rafael Benitez after Liverpool's victory in Istanbul

There is another quote which I cant find in which he talks about how amazing the kop is - Anyway very sad. RIP Sir Bobby :'(
 
[quote author=gkmacca link=topic=35005.msg915719#msg915719 date=1249032081]
A real gentleman, a proper sportsman and a credit to his country. Very sad.
[/quote]

Seconded.

RIP Bobby, YNWA.
 
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