I went to Portman Road yesterday to see the tributes to Bobby Robson. I didn't start supporting Ipswich Town until after his departure - I was only five when he left to manage England - but a glance at the history books is all that's required to see what an incredible job he did for us. There have been a few good times since but nothing to compare with the decade under his command when we were right up there with the best.It didn't start well though. In his first three full seasons we finished 18th, 19th and 13th in a 22 team top flight. Fans called for him to be sacked but the board gave him their backing. Would this have happened in the modern game? Probably not, but such is the value of patience. Over the next ten seasons we finished 4th, 4th, 3rd, 6th, 3rd, 18th, 6th, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd. And while the 18th place was an aberration, winning the FA Cup that season was pretty good compensation! The UEFA Cup followed in 1981 (back then a more prestigious competition), and but for an unjust FA Cup semi final defeat and a paper thin squad required to play 66 games, we could have carried home the treble. Those were, indeed, the days.
So it's no surprise that the people of Ipswich have such great love and respect for Bobby Robson. He earned every bit of it by making a small town club into a genuine force in European football.
4 comments:
Nice tribute Graham. If you haven't already, I recommend you read All Played Out by Pete Davies, a book about the 1990 World Cup which features Bobby Robson heavily and almost entirely positively. By all accounts he was a lovely bloke to go with his undoubted talents.
Thanks, I might check that out. I met him at a book signing about four years ago and he was happy to engage in banter with anyone who'd taken the time to come and see him. 'You're a tall lad', he said. It's always nice to be called a lad. In the old fashioned sense, anyway.
I never met Sir Bobby - but we did share Highbury stadium for 90 minutes during the late 1970s. I was an avid Arsenal supporter as a kid and my dad took me to see them play against the Tractor Boys. (My first and only live game.) I can recall three things...
1) The view was rubbish (stupid tall adults)
2) Most people swore
3) Arsenal slaughtered Ipswich 1-0
Ipswich are 10/1 to win the Coca-Cola Championship. That is outstanding value*. Fill your boots!
* As long as Roy Keane doesn't throw his toys out of the pram. (I'm confident he will do the full season.)
See page 7 of the current issue of Private Eye, where they note that in 1988 The Sun ran a reader poll called "You The Jury" to ascertain whether "Bungler Bobby, the Frank Spencer of Football" should be fired forthwith as England manager, and then brought forward his eventual resignation in 1990 by paying his alleged mistress for her salacious story. Fast Forward to 2009, and the've changed their tune a bit! "A Gent and a Giant" was their verdict on the man. "His peerless integrity, his granite will to win and generosity to his opponents came to define all that was best in football at a time when sportsmanship was being distorted by the lure of big money"!! Perhaps they got him mixed up with someone else!!!
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