OBITUARY: Bobby Robson

Manager who brought the England team to within a kick of their first World Cup final since 1966

Robson exhorting his Newcastle side to greater things against Manchester City in 2002. He was dismissed by his boyhood idols two years later. 

Brian Glanville

Friday 31 July 2009 17.02 BST

Last modified on Monday 19 May 2014 14.00 BST

It was Diego Maradona's notorious "hand of God" that eliminated England from the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico – but it was the manager Bobby Robson who had taken them there, advancing one step further to the semi-finals four years later in Italy, only to lose to Germany on penalties. Although widely lampooned and vilified by the press for his perceived inadequacies, Robson, who has died of cancer aged 76, was the man who brought the national side closer than any other to a repeat of their 1966 glory.

His achievement, however – followed by a successful managerial career at club level – seemed improbable in his early years at the helm of England. Appointed in 1982, he failed to secure qualification for the 1984 European championships in France after a home defeat to Denmark and then got off to a dismal start in the 1986 finals with a 1-0 defeat to Portugal and a goalless draw with Morocco.

Ever thin-skinned in the face of criticism – "Pressure? What pressure?" he once asked a press conference in Mexico City in 1985. "You people provide the pressure. If you didn't exist, my job would be twice as easy and twice as pleasurable" – Robson responded poorly to the customary savaging by journalists, but was held in high esteem by players and fans alike, particularly during his years in charge of the terminally dysfunctional Newcastle United in his native north-east.

He won cups too – the Uefa and FA cups with Ipswich Town (with whom he came within an ace of winning the league), the Dutch championship twice with PSV Eindhoven, the Portugese league and cup double with FC Porto, plus a further league title there, and three trophies during his single season with the mighty Barcelona, including the European cup winners' cup. And as a player, he struck up a famous partnership at Fulham with the legendary Johnny Haynes, with whom he would also later play for England.

Robson was born in the village of Sacriston, three miles north of Durham, and attended Langley Park primary school and Waterhouses secondary modern school. While working in the mines as an apprentice electrician, he played with great success as an inside-right for Langley Park Juniors, attracting the attention of Newcastle United, among others. But it was the Fulham manager, Bill Dodgin, who pulled off a substantial coup by bringing him to west London in May 1950. His six years there featured 152 appearances and 69 goals.

In March 1956, West Bromwich Albion paid a club transfer record of £25,000 for him, making him captain and converting him into a right-half, a position where his good control and excellent use of the ball made him highly effective. It was in this role that he would, in time, re-establish his partnership with Haynes as one of the two midfield players in an England team which had embraced the popular 4-2-4 formation introduced by the Brazilians in the 1958 World Cup. Altogether, he stayed with Albion for seven years, playing 240 league games and scoring 61 goals.

The first of 20 England caps came in 1957, when he scored twice in a 4-0 win over France. Robson accompanied the national side to the World Cup finals in Sweden in 1958 (where they went out at the group stage) and again in Chile in 1962 but did not get a game, the 21-year-old Bobby Moore being preferred at right-half. After the tournament, he was transferred back to Fulham, resumed his club partnership with Haynes and did not retire until 1967.

In the summer of that year, he had his first management experience in Canada with the Vancouver Royals, but after six months he returned to Fulham as manager. The club was in a trough and he was dismissed after only 10 months, moving on to find fame with Ipswich Town.

Robson's years at Portman Road were marked by two distinct periods. Initially, Ipswich played the kind of long-ball game at that time espoused by Liverpool. But Robson changed to a more deliberate and intricate style after he had signed two fine Dutch midfield players, Frans Thijssen and Arnold Mühren. These two, with their technical ability and passing skills, imposed a quite different pattern on the team, which proceeded to win the FA Cup in 1978, beating Arsenal 1-0, and the Uefa cup in 1981, beating AZ Alkmaar 5-4 on aggregate. Mühren, however, would later write scathingly of Robson and his alleged tactical ingenuousness.

Robson took over as England manager in July 1982, replacing Ron Greenwood. The so-called senior international committee plainly saw his as the face that fitted, yet it was well known, not least among the press, that he had what might euphemistically be called a hectic romantic life, the facts of which would not be laid bare until just before the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

His eight years in charge saw him repeatedly plucking triumph from apparent disaster, either through luck, as his critics averred, or through sheer resilience, as he would see it. "We've got here. I don't know how," he was heard to remark before the semi-final penalties defeat to Germany in Turin in 1990. Despite the honourable outcome of that campaign, resulting in the award of a CBE, his subsequent departure generated no small amount of ill will too.

He had already announced his decision to resign before the tournament ended since the Football Association, after tabloid stories about his private life, had made it clear his contract would not be renewed. The capacity of the senior international committee, however, may be assessed from a subsequent remark by their chairman, Peter Swales of Manchester City, who said he was glad that England had not won the World Cup because that would have meant Robson remaining in the post.

Robson joined PSV Eindhoven in 1990, and in spite of much criticism by Dutch journalists and even his own players, he still contrived to win the domestic championship twice. However, he was sacked two years later, the dismissal coinciding with the first diagnosis of his cancer. This was followed by a move to Portugal, where he did well with Sporting Lisbon, until, when things briefly went against them, he was dismissed, only to be taken on immediately by their rivals Porto, with whom he proceeded to win the league championship twice and the cup once.

In 1996, at the age of 63, he at last was given the plum of plums, the managership of Barcelona, twice offered to him in his Ipswich days and twice turned down. There he rebuilt the team, signed the marvellous young Brazilian striker Ronaldo, whom he had previously appointed at PSV, and embarked upon a new adventure, leading to the Spanish cup, the Spanish super cup and the European cup winners' cup in a single season before he was kicked upstairs. His success at the Catalan club led to him being voted European manager of the year in 1997.

In the middle of the 1999-2000 season, by now in his late 60s, Robson finally achieved a long-held ambition when he became manager of the team he had supported as a boy, Newcastle United. It was a club in turmoil, the consequence of the abrasive management of the Dutchman Ruud Gullit, who had fallen out with their most talismanic player, the centre-forward Alan Shearer. Robson quickly restored tranquillity and morale, and turned the previously disastrous season around. Two years later he was knighted for his services to football.

In August 2004, after five years in command, he was summarily dismissed by the Magpies' controversial chairman, Freddie Shepherd. In truth, his position had been rendered untenable when, at the start of the season, Shepherd announced that his contract would not be renewed when the season ended. His vast outlay on players had seemed wasteful and relations with Shearer had deteriorated.

In those five years, Robson had initially healed the wounds. But by the age of 71, he plainly found it increasingly difficult to motivate his team. Mean-while, he had modulated from his erstwhile suspicious stance into a genial Grand Old Man of the game.

In 2006, he took on the role of consultant, assisting Steve Staunton as manager of Ireland, but nothing came of the initiative. He is survived by his wife Elsie and their three sons, Andrew, Paul and Mark.

• Bobby (Robert William) Robson, football player and manager, born 18 February 1933; died 31 July 2009