That campaign was yet another in the long list of crimes against humanity bearing Terry Venables' fingerprints, wasn't it?

1986? Can't remember.

The seeds of the tabloid campaign had been sown with the non-qualification for Euro 84, though that was no disgrace considering how good the Danes were. Admittedly Robson didn't help himself by announcing before the game in Copenhagen: "Sepp Piontek, I've picked my team and we're coming to get you."

Harri Saer wrote:

QUOTE:
I echo what everyone else. Having him as the guest of honour at the Cup Final was special, somebody who actually meant something as opposed to a minor royal or football adminstrator for a change.

There's a lovely quote (that I can't find) from Harry Pearson about how, when Lineker equalised in the 1990 WC semi, Robson did a little celebratory dance while simultaneously doing up his blazer and how it sort of summed up being English.

Still, too early for eulogies I suppose.

I was actually going to say, isn't it quite nice that this way he more-or-less gets to read his own obituaries?

Hieronymus, I meant the tabloid campaign.

I always thought El Tel was whispering in his mates' ears about how "out of touch" Robson was.

Venables was still Barcelona manager at that stage though, so he wouldn't have been angling for Robson's job.

I'm pretty sure that he was a pundit on ITV for Mexico 86. ITV's main studio panellist that year was Emlyn Hughes.

It's very sad news. It's also sad that pretty much the last job he had in football was being wheeled out by the FAI to defend Steve Staunton, who lets face it was the worst international manager I've ever come across.

Point taken, but there were always people at Barca who weren't happy with him, and Venables has always been one to watch his back.

Then again, it's of course true that the tabs are capable of this kind of thing without any help from him.

ursus arctos wrote:

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Point taken, but there were always people at Barca who weren't happy with him, and Venables has always been one to watch his back.

And of course Venables had just lost the European Cup in extremely embarrassing fashion.

robson got caught up in a ratings war didn't he. I thought it was more mcKenzie vs maxwell in an effort to do him down the quickest

Robson was vilified around every tournament he took England too, but even the length of his tenure was a product of different times. When do you think England will next give a manager eight years?

His man-out-of-timeness was also reinforced more recently at Newcastle, where you got the sense that he was presiding over a dressing-room full of degenerates that he didn't know how to deal with. Despite - or perhaps even because of - that he's one of the game's good guys.

I can't even begin to put my feelings towards Sir Bobby in this post.

Football is awash with people who are described as 'legends' or 'heroes' but few of them actually are, Sir Bobby is one of the few.

It's not just thanks to his achievements as a club manager and his tenure as the second most successful England manager of all time (2nd only to another Ipswich Town legend) but also because he has always been a man of supreme dignity and class.

I met him on a couple of occasions, mainly because his brother owned the newsagent in Combes Ford (in Stowmarket) when I was a kid, he actually signed copies of his first autobiography there, I was so starstruck that I couldn't actually talk to him.

Sir Bobby, you are a true gentleman, thanks for all the wonderful memories.

''His man-out-of-timeness was also reinforced more recently at Newcastle, where you got the sense that he was presiding over a dressing-room full of degenerates that he didn't know how to deal with.''

man out of timeness or not he took us to 4th 3rd and 5th in consecutive seasons...'only' finishing 5th got him the sack ...

never mind still attending SJP for Premier games he still turns up to watch the NUFC reserves...

even Ferguson was prepared to swallow his spat with the BBC and accompany him to the Sports Personality awards...

never single minded enough to win trophies on a regular basis either as a bastard of a manager or putting out a bastard of a team...

still how many managers could get a team including Titus Bramble into the Champions League...

"When do you think England will next give a manager eight years?"

Well bleeding Eriksson got 6, but let's not revisit that theatre of pain.

And despite the revisionism plenty of Newcastle fans were glad to see the back of Bobby too.

It's strange, because it's obvious that Robson's been dying for some time (hence the 2007 award), and he told the Sunday Times he had terminal cancer quite a while ago, but it has to appear in block capitals in the Sun before it's news.

Best tribute you can give is donate to his charitable foundation

http://www.sirbobbyrobsonfoundation.org.uk/

Will be deeply and honestly sadly missed


(But come on boys, he's not dead yet. Let's not write the eulogies quite now, eh?)

I remember, as a wee kiddie, reading an issue of Match magazine where Sir Bobby was given an opportunity to play one of those football manager games on a PC. His sheer amazement and delight at such a thing, and his delight that an ordinary fan could have a chance to emulate a manager always makes me chuckle to think of it.

(That and Martin O'Neill raging about someone's transfer price in the same game. "Seven million? I wouldn't give you two!")

Not quite as 'big' a memory as most here but just a little something that reinforces a popular image of Robson as the genial gentleman slightly out of time.

Agree with Malc, he was a shambles as an England manager who gained success as a produce of fortune rather than insight.

Saying that, I have a list of heart warming stories as long as your arm from people I know in Portugal, it seems like he personally did something nice at one time or another to everybody in the country, whether it was presenting trophies to school football teams, signing autographs in restaurants or what not. He must be a really great guy.

That Pearson quote;

QUOTE:
I have always liked Robson, even during the dark days of Euro 88 when the only soft spot most people had for him was a patch of quicksand on Romney Marsh. Partly this is down to regional bias, but mainly it is because of his obvious enthusiasm for football.

And then, of course, there was his celebration of David Platt's winning goal against Belgium. This saw the then England supremo execute an exuberant hip-swinging rumba while simultaneously buttoning up his blazer, a combination of actions that to my mind sums up the contradictions of modern England more completely than any amount of Britart ever could.