Bobby Robson's sadness over Newcastle's implosion

[Thespence]

George Caulkin Exclusive

 

Somewhere amid the ashes of hope, the bitterness of boycotts, takeover, defeats and resignations, and with the clamour of protests and coarse epithets ringing in the ears, a football club endures. Before they became the club of Mike Ashley, Dennis Wise and ingrained mayhem, Newcastle United were the club of Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer. And a proud man called Sir Bobby Robson.

 

Robson has watched Newcastle’s implosion with dismay. As recently as 2004, he was manager at St James’ Park, where he led a feisty team into the Champions League and to third in the top flight. In January, he felt the optimism when Kevin Keegan returned, but months of tumult have followed seasons of flux. It is not legacy he cares about, but his home.

 

Robson spans the Tyneside generations. At 75, he is old enough to have toiled in Langley Park Colliery and seen Milburn excel, young enough to have worked with Shearer and signed Charles N’Zogbia. He is a link with Newcastle’s FA Cup titans of the 1950s (he was at Wembley to witness all three winning finals) who understands the machinations of a modern, inflated, madcap business.

 

Recently, Robson has been labouring again, raising funds for the charitable foundation that carries his name and that will benefit NHS cancer projects across the North East (he is fighting the disease for the fifth time) and assembling a new book. Newcastle, My Kind of Toon is a glossy love letter to a club and city (for the record, this correspondent was involved in the project).

 

Nostalgia feels necessary because the present at Newcastle is so dark. “There are all sorts of words you could use to describe what’s happened – and some have been vitriolic – but the one I’d use to express what I feel about the club is sadness,” Robson said. “It’s just sad how a big, magnificent club like it is could have reached this point.

 

“My five years there were among the most marvellous of my life. I loved it; every morning, every match, every moment. It was bottom when I took over and everybody was afraid it was going to slip down into the Championship. It’s hard to envisage how the club has gone back to where it was and possibly worse.

 

“I don’t have any doubts about the reasons. There have been way too many managers in that time and some of the player acquisitions have been dreadful. Who’s been responsible for that, I don’t know – and in Kevin’s case that was one of his arguments, that they were bringing in players he didn’t even know.”

 

Robson’s managerial career was a gilded one; he won the FA and Uefa Cups with Ipswich Town and his eight years with England culminated in the 1990 World Cup semi-finals before a mazy continental tour of PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona. In Europe, he never hired a British coach. At Newcastle, he embraced localisation.

 

“I felt that lift, the emotion, when Kevin was appointed,” he said. “The whole city was enraptured. Everyone thought the messiah had returned, that he’d get it right. Everyone thought he’d have a great relationship with Mike Ashley [the owner] and because he’d been given a three-year contract, the club would back him. It felt like an inspired choice. I thought to myself, ‘this is it now’.

 

“But then they threw a spanner in the works by appointing Dennis Wise [as executive director (football)] and he operates from London. The mistake was bringing people in who aren’t attuned to the club and who worked at the opposite end of the country. And whether Dennis has got the skill and expertise and experience in that field is very doubtful.

 

“They’ve brought in people like Xisco and Nacho González and when I first saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God! How are they going to play in the Premier League? Who’s responsible for buying those players, who saw them play, when did they see them, how many times and where are the scouting reports?’ I think it’s wrong and potentially a waste of money.

 

“In the five years I was at Newcastle, as well as coaching from Monday to Friday and working on Saturdays, I would send my staff out scouting. We knew what we were buying. I made all of them live and operate from Newcastle. You’ve got to be on tap.

 

“Successful football clubs are all about successful relationships and you don’t get that overnight. It takes time and continuity; you can’t do it in six months. The trouble is that, since I left Newcastle, success didn’t come readily and before you know where you are, they’ve changed managers again. It’s just gone horribly wrong.” The arrival of Joe Kinnear as interim manager and his explicit tirade at reporters brought another erosion of respect. “How do headmasters in Newcastle, reading that, explain it to schoolchildren?” Robson said. “It’s more likely to encourage people to take up rugby rather than football.

 

“It came at a time when people have been desperate for reasons to be proud of their club and while some people might think journalists deserve what they get, my belief is it took the club down another peg or two. A manager of Newcastle speaking like that? It should never happen.

 

It’s a job of dignity, integrity and responsibility. I hope Joe’s successful, but it wasn’t the right way to behave.”

 

So much for the problems, what about a cure? Newcastle’s sale is progressing, but nobody can second-guess the motivations of new owners and the first-team squad remains alarmingly slim. “The quicker the club is sold and the right amount of money is made available to improve the team, the better,” Robson said. “Financially, the club has to be stable.

 

“But the most crucial decision at Newcastle is not who buys it – although that’s vitally important – but who the manager is. It’s their only salvation. He’s the puppet master, he pulls the strings. It’s like the captain of a ship; with a good captain, the ship sails, without one, it doesn’t.”

 

Keegan, Shearer or a combination of the two are “realistic prospects”, Robson said, although the latter would require a sturdy support network. “Alan will make a very good manager,” he said. “I think he’d need someone to coach for him or be a liaison for him, but he knows what the club is all about, he knows how the supporters feel. He’d be dedicated.

 

“He’s always had managerial qualities. He has a good mind, he speaks it well, and he has a clout. Under me, he was a great example. Everything you’d want in a good pro, Alan had.”

 

In football, it is never too late; there is always another game, another season, another chance for redemption. Robson will be on the edge of his usual seat for this evening’s visit of Manchester City, hoping, praying.

 

“We live in a wonderful part of the worldand Newcastle is a fantastic club,” he said. “It’s those 52,000 fans you feel sorry for. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, they turn up in rain, blow, shine or snow. There’s a passion here that’s rare.

 

“Even now, I pinch myself. To have been in charge of the club I supported, my father’s club – phew. If my Dad had known that, he’d have been so proud he’d have somersaulted all the way to the games.”

 

In spite of the prevailing negativity, Robson reminds us that Newcastle do not lack love. They just need people worthy of it.

 

Sir Bobby Robson's Newcastle, My Kind of Toon is published by Hodder and Stoughton at a RRP of £20 Donations to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation can be made at: justgiving.com/thesirbobbyrobsonfoundation

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/newcastle/article4974494.ece

 

 

 

George Caulkin  wrote the above for the Times,, Neil Farrington wrote yesterday about Caulkin :

 

 

 

Bobby's book a thing of beauty

 

I’M well aware that the stock of sportswriters has fallen flatter than the FTSE 100 in recent months.

 

But the fortnight since Joe Kinnear’s already infamous rant has brought proof that hacks can have a heart.

 

 

George Caulkin, North East football correspondent for The Times, helped Sir Bobby Robson pen his latest book, Newcastle: My Kind Of Toon.

 

It’s a thing of beauty. Rarely have words and pictures combined so vividly to bring the social history of Newcastle United — and Tyneside in general — to life.

 

Better still however, (though he’s not the type to thank me for publicising the fact), George insisted that the fee due to him for his work on the book be donated to Sir Bobby’s cancer foundation.

 

Considering Caulkin is far from richly rewarded for his talents, his is some gesture.

 

For Newcastle fans, Bobby’s (published by Hodder & Stoughton and available now) is some book.

 

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/columnists/2008/10/19/bobby-s-book-a-thing-of-beauty-79310-22063930/

[Tooj]

[maze]

Robson = Legend "

[Guest Stephen927]

Nice gesture from Caulkin. 

[Guest toonlass]

Robson is a complete legend, a gentleman and a true Newcastle man through and through. And well done to Caulkin to put that money where it was needed. Thank you.

[Mick]

He should not have gone for finishing 5th or the poor start the season after, all of our problems go back to him getting sacked.  I know some think his time was up with us, I don't.  I'm sure if he had been given the financial backing which was given to Souness then we would have been pushing Man U instead of finishing 14th and nobody will change my mind on that.

 

We needed to turn draws into wins, we turned them in to defeats.

[Dr Venkman]

 

 

 

“They’ve brought in people like Xisco and Nacho González and when I first saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God! How are they going to play in the Premier League?

 

i take it he doesnt rate them too much then? 

[La Parka]

 

 

 

“They’ve brought in people like Xisco and Nacho González and when I first saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God! How are they going to play in the Premier League?

 

i take it he doesnt rate them too much then? 

 

 

Bit harsh on Xisco, lad has the qualities a striker needs, everyone is being harsh on him.

[Guest The Libertine]

robson is proof that the supporters demand success yesterday. huge progress was not enough. his only crime was not winning the champions league that year 

[Guest toonlass]

robson is proof that the supporters demand success yesterday. huge progress was not enough. his only crime was not winning the champions league that year 

 

Wasn't the supporters who sacked Robson though was it?

[Guest The Libertine]

robson is proof that the supporters demand success yesterday. huge progress was not enough. his only crime was not winning the champions league that year 

 

Wasn't the supporters who sacked Robson though was it?

 

near enough. the mass walk out after the 5th place finish was a nice send off.

[Tooj]

robson is proof that the supporters demand success yesterday. huge progress was not enough. his only crime was not winning the champions league that year 

 

Not at all. But in his last season some of his decisions were bizarre to say the very least.

[Guest The Libertine]

robson is proof that the supporters demand success yesterday. huge progress was not enough. his only crime was not winning the champions league that year 

 

Not at all. But in his last season some of his decisions were bizarre to say the very least.

 

a slight exaggeration on my part, but the decision to sack him really underlined the ineptitude of the old board....

 

 

....

[Dr Venkman]

oh god

[Tooj]

I disagree with those comments as he should have went in the summer like Houllier did for Liverpool. The biggest mistake was his replacement.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

 

 

 

Theyve brought in people like Xisco and Nacho González and when I first saw them I thought, Oh my God! How are they going to play in the Premier League?

 

i take it he doesnt rate them too much then? 

 

The only bit I disagree about is him bringing up these individual players names, especially Xisco who hasn't done much wrong at all.

[BottledDog]

I disagree with those comments as he should have went in the summer like Houllier did for Liverpool. The biggest mistake was his replacement.

 

Absolutely.

[Guest The Libertine]

I disagree with those comments as he should have went in the summer like Houllier did for Liverpool. The biggest mistake was his replacement.

 

i think that too. its the late august sacking (and subsequent replacement/s) which was the beginning of the end for the old board for me.

[Mick]

oh god

 

[Mick]

I disagree with those comments as he should have went in the summer like Houllier did for Liverpool. The biggest mistake was his replacement.

 

He shouldn't have gone in the summer, he should have stayed and been backed.  His replacement though, I can agree with.

[ChezGiven]

Ordered the book on amazon. Anyone else got it yet?

[Guest SpinTheBlackCircle]

“They’ve brought in people like Xisco and (Ignacio) Gonzalez and when I first saw them I thought: ‘How are they going to play in the Premier League?’ Who’s responsible for buying those players? Who saw them play?”

 

 

[Mick]

Ordered the book on amazon. Anyone else got it yet?

 

I knew nothing about it until today but I will also be ordering it.

[TRon]

“They’ve brought in people like Xisco and (Ignacio) Gonzalez and when I first saw them I thought: ‘How are they going to play in the Premier League?’ Who’s responsible for buying those players? Who saw them play?”

 

 

 

I wonder how much SBR has seen of them? I haven't seen enough to form an opinion either way yet although neither has looked like setting football alight just yet.

[Mick]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Newcastle-Kind-Toon-Bobby-Robson/dp/0340977833/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224518011&sr=1-2

 

The price varies from just under £14 to £150.