Sir Bobby Robson was something to everyone; the grandfather of the game, a father figure to his players and the son of a proud North East region. His death was mourned but his life celebrated, every tear dried with a smile. Five years on, his legacy is tangible in the form of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, the brilliant charity which has raised £7.3million for cancer research, treatment and care. Prior to this summer’s World Cup, a television feature asked England’s players for their Three Lions hero – to a man they replied ‘Paul Gascoigne’, the star of 1990. Gascoigne, however, attributes everything to Robson. ‘He was like a second dad, a phenomenal human being,’ he once said. The affection was mutual. The Sir Bobby Robson Trophy Match at St James’ Park recreated the semi-final between England and West Germany and came just five days before Robson’s death. Frail and in a wheelchair, It was his final appearance in public. Until the end, however, his first thought was football and the players he had nurtured. On his way home from the game he asked, ‘How was Gascoigne? How did Gascoigne do?’. Robson cared. Another Gascoigne anecdote springs to mind. The night before that semi-final against the Germans, Robson’s star midfielder was missing. The manager tracked him down to a tennis court where he was taking on two American tourists. Rather than turn on Gascoigne, Robson asked the unsuspecting Americans why they were expending his player’s energy the night before the biggest game of his life. Gascoigne took advantage and headed straight for bed. Twenty-four hours later and Robson was again looking out for his prodigious talent following the booking which would rule him out of the final. Gary Lineker, famously, turned to Robson in the wake of Gascoigne’s tears. Lineker later said: ‘Out of everything in my career, the moment people ask me about most often was when Gazza got booked in that semi-final. ‘I could see his bottom lip was going. I think it says a lot about Bobby that it was him I turned to, to ask him to have a word. ‘Bobby knew instinctively when to scold him and when to put an arm round his shoulder. Gazza was an emotional guy and I know he exasperated Bobby on occasions but Bobby was brilliant at connecting with people.’ Remembering Robson - the miner’s son who was raised in a County Durham pit village - Sir Alex Ferguson said: ‘I was never too big or proud to ask him for advice, which he gave freely and unconditionally. ‘His character was hewn out of the coalface; developed by the County Durham mining background that he came from. ‘His parents instilled in him the discipline and standards which forged the character of a colossal human being.’ Lineker and Ferguson’s words have been, and will continue to be, echoed by the game’s greatest; from Alan Shearer to Ronaldo to Jose Mourinho. But it is Robson’s own words which best capture the emotion he still manages to evoke. In his book, My Kind of Toon, Robson wrote: ‘What is a club in any case? ‘Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. ‘It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. ‘It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. ‘It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.’ Robson was real. He cared, not only about his players, but every supporter who walked through the turnstile. He had been one of them as a boy at Newcastle’s St James’ Park and never lost sight of that. And that is why football will never lose sight of Robson – be it five years or 50, the grandfather of football will never get old. /Loraine
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 06:49:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015