Sir Bobby Robson

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Music, Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Music Commentary

4.3 • 14.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2004

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Bobby Robson. Sir Bobby Robson is one of the most enduring and popular faces in football. For more than five decades he has dedicated his life to the game - as a player and manager. As a small boy growing up in a mining village in County Durham, he learnt his ball skills by playing football in the streets and backyard with his four brothers.

By the time he was 15, Bobby knew he had a particular gift and was attracting the attention of the local talent scouts. But, despite being offered a professional place by his home team of Newcastle, he decided to head south to Fulham, where he thought he'd have a greater chance to shine. He went on to play successfully for Fulham and West Bromwich Albion and earned twenty England caps before an ankle injury cut short his international career. He then managed Ipswich Town for 13 very successful years - leaving when he was offered the opportunity manage the England squad. After a successful career in Europe he returned to Britain in 1999 to manage Newcastle but was sacked early in the season. Despite health problems, he says he hasn't given up hope of finding another club to manage.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: It Was a Very Good Year by Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra Book: The works of historian John Keegan: The First World War & the Second World War collected into one volume by John Keegan Luxury: Sun lounger with canopy to protect him from the sun

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2004, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is a footballer, his whole life has been devoted to the game from his childhood
0:34.6	in County Durham to his playing days for England, followed by his long career as manager
0:39.2	of some half a dozen clubs at home and abroad and of our national squad. As a kid he'd kick anything
0:45.7	around including a lump of coal and used to make a 34 mile round trip to
0:49.5	watch his homeside play. He played for Fulham and West Bromwich Albion and was in the World Cup
0:54.6	squads of 58 and 62. As a manager he took ip switch to victory in the
0:59.4	FA and the UEFA Cups and throughout the 80s was the man with the second most difficult job in British public life, manager of England.
1:07.0	A successful international career followed and then age 66, instead of retiring, he returned to manage the side he'd loved since he first watched
1:15.9	them play 60 years previously, Newcastle United.
1:19.8	Energetic and passionate players have often said they'd go through a brick wall for him.
1:24.1	He says it's a tough world and you don't get to the top without it being rough sometimes.
1:29.5	He is, of course, Sir Bobby Robson.
1:32.4	And it's been rough to the end if the end it is
1:34.9	Sir Bobby because you were rather unceremoniously sacked a few months ago
1:38.8	was that in many ways the unkindest cut of all to end in that kind of way?
1:45.2	Well yes just about I was very disappointed and actually I was stunned shocked
1:51.4	bewildered I didn't expect it, but it is a tough life, you have to win football matches.
2:00.0	I was dismissed in August, so we hadn't played too many. Five years I'd been at the club.
2:05.8	I lived every minute of it. My father took me there as a boy. He bled black and white, so
2:10.6	did I and I loved the job and we'd made great progress.
	...

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