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Sir Bobby Robson
| Category: | Special European Hall of Fame - one of the five all-time best managers from the English game based on performance in Europe |
| Year Inducted: | 2008 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of The Football Hall of Fame, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
A hint of the considerable contribution made by Sir Bobby Robson in the cause of European football emerges from the title of his autobiography.
An Englishman Abroad, published in 1998, charted his five decades in the game - as first a player of international class and then manager who led his country at two World Cups and enjoyed success at club level in England, Holland, Portugal and Spain. ‘Bobby Robson is an institution who performed wonders while he was in Spain,' said Raul, the Spain forward.
At Italia '90, England came within a couple of spot kicks of reaching the final, playing an exciting, positive brand of tournament that illuminated the tournament during the knock - out stage. Under Robson's leadership, England were involved, according to many observers, in the most stunning denouement (against Belgium); the most fluctuating narrative (against Cameroon); and the greatest drama (against West Germany).
Perhaps of even more importance, at a time when the reputation of English football had been tarred by hooliganism, Robson's side won FIFA's Fair Play Award. ‘ Considering the troubles had suffered, this award was of great importance to us,' Robson wrote.
Returning to club football, Robson led PSV Eindhoven to the Dutch title in successive seasons and then repeated the trick in Portugal by lifting Porto to the championship.
Such success alerted Barcelona, who appointed Robson as successor to the great Dutchman Johan Cruyff as manager in 1996. It was the third time the Catalan giants had sought his services; for good reason, Robson would later describe the appointment as his ‘destiny'. The following year Barcelona won the European Cup-winners' Cup final against Paris St Germain.
It was the second European trophy on his managerial CV; in 1981, Robson guided Ipswich Town to success in the UEFA Cup. After narrowly missing out on the title to Aston Villa, the modest Suffolk club defeated AZ 67 Alkmaar, the newly crowned champions of Holland, over two legs in the final. Perhaps their best performance, though, came in the quarter-finals of the same competition: the 4-1 thumping of St Etienne in France.
One of the goalscorers against Alkmaar was Frans Thijssen, one of the two Dutchman, alongside Arnold Muhren, both of whom were signed after being spotted by the Ipswich manager during one of his many scouting and pre-season trips to Holland.
It was an early - and high-profile - example of an English club manager systematically looking to Continental Europe in search of talent - coinciding with the arrival of Argentina World Cup stars Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa at Tottenham Hotspur, setting a precedent that has been followed countless times since.
Muhren, an elegant left-footed midfield player who ‘had every pass in the book', was signed from Twente Enschede for the then modest fee of £150,000 in August 1978. The following February Robson returned to Twente to sign Thijssen for £220,000. ‘Frans could take people out of the game with his dribbling, left or right, and he was a great competitor.' This was Harrods quality at corner shop prices. ‘I couldn't believe my luck when I heard the price they were asking for Frans and Arnold,' Robson wrote later.
Both players were ‘great professionals and loved the English style of training', Robson recalled. Their performances on the field and attitude off it sent a message to other clubs; English football was entering the age of the foreign ‘import'.
On his eventual return to England, following a second spell with PSV, Robson made a nostalgic return to Newcastle United, the team he supported as a boy. Between 1999 and 2004, Robson delighted his fellow Geordies by transforming a previously struggling club into regular participants in the Champions League. Amidst all this, Newcastle reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, defeating one of Robson's former clubs, PSV Eindhoven, along the way. ‘I am black and white through and through,' he once said.
Having returned home, Robson, who described himself as ‘a proud Englishman', had mixed feelings about having spent so many years away. ‘I was born and bred in Newcastle,' he said. ‘I left in 1950 to pursue my playing career and came back in 1999. So I was away nearly 50 years. In some ways, I was aghast at that thought,' he once wrote. But, overall, he believes that the experience of working abroad was a positive experience, enhancing his education as a coach and a manager.
Concluding his 1998 autobiography, Robson wrote: ‘I certainly believe I am a better manager now than when I left the England job almost ten years ago,‘ he wrote. ‘I have enjoyed every minute of my time on the Continent.'