It’s with a heavy heart that I start this posting, as the sad news that Sir Bobby Robson has finally lost his fight with cancer after a 13 year battle with the disease. Sir Bobby’s last public appearance was at the charity match for his foundation on Sunday, and it was heartbreaking yet wonderful to see him receive the adulation of his beloved Geordie fans one last time.

Robson was the most successful English manager of the last 50 years, of that there is no argument, both at home in England and with various stints in Spain, Portugal and Holland. A true gentleman, his warmth, generosity and love of the game touched everyone that he came in contact with throughout his long and distinguished career.  Whilst Clough had success at Forest in his early days, he never built on his early success at Derby County or Nottingham Forest, save for a League Cup win in 1988. Robson won trophies in 4 countries and took his country to a World Cup semi final over a 10 year period.

A successful footballer, Robson was a deep lying centre forward, similar to the role that Teddy Sheringham would later distinguish with such panache. He started his career at Fulham, but as with Sir Tom Finney, his father made him concentrate on a proper trade, becoming an apprentice electrian whilst still training with Fulham. In the two spells he spent at Craven Cottage, Robson made 344 appearances and scored 77 goals. The spells at Fulham bracketed a 6 year spell with West Bromwich Albion, where he appeared 239 times and hit 56 goals.  He also regularly appeared for England, earning 20 caps and getting 4 goals between 1957 – 1962.

Yet, Robson’s playing career would be eclipsed by his success as a manager, though it didn’t get off to the best start. Returning after a spell in Canada, playing for the Vancouver Royals, Robson joined Fulham for a third time as manager in 1968.  Robson took over a struggling side and was unable to keep them in the First Division. The following season, with Fulham in 8th, he discovered he had been sacked on a “Robson Sacked” placard outside Putney tube station.

 It was to be his next place of employment that would set Robson on the path to greatness,;he took over at Ipswich Town in 1969. Staying for a total of 13 years, in his last 9 seasons at Portman Road, Ipswich only finished lower than 6th once. This achievement could not be understated, surrounded by the giants of Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Aston Villa, Ipswich were punching well above their weight. He consistently delivered European Football and under his guidance the club won the F.A. Cup in 1978 and the U.E.F.A. Cup in 1981.

It was clear that he had a job for life at Ipswich Town and his success as bringing players through the youth system was a testament to his skill as a spotter of players. In the 13 years he was the manager, he only signed 14 players, an incredible figure that showed the qualities the scouting network and youth system delivered.

In 1982, Ron Greenwood announced he would leave the England job and the F.A made Robson their preferred choice. The F.A’s dislike of Brian Clough meant the role was Robson’s to lose and even a last minute offer of a ten year contract at Ipswich couldn’t change his mind.

He took over in June 1982 and would spend 8 years in charge of his country. There were low points of course along the way, failure to qualify for Euro 84 and the teams woeful performance in Euro 88 but the success of getting England to Quarter Finals of the World Cup in 1986, and within a post width of a rematch in the final of Italia 90 saw Robson deliver the best showing by an England side in a World Cup since 1966.

Robson’s final two years in the England job saw him recieve unbelievably negative press, consistently being urged to quit. When the F.A. decided to remove him in 1990, I wonder just how long in Graham Taylor’s reign they’d realised what a mistake they’d made? Robson left with the success of Italia 90 still ringing in his ears and embarked on a 9 year managerial campaign in Europe. Taking over at PSV Eindhoven, he won the title in his first two seasons, but the PSV board wanted more success in Europe and Robson was removed in the summer of 1992. He then moved to Portugal and Sporting Lisbon, meeting a young interpreter by the name of Jose Mourinho.The two then moved to Porto and Barcelona. In 1999, Robson eventually got the job he’d always wanted, when he became the manager of Newcastle United.

Robson’s battle with cancer began in 1991 and he has fought 5 separate bouts of the disease in the last 18 years. He was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2007, but still struggling to recover from a stroke caused by a brain tumour in 2006, it was one last fight too far.  Setting up his foundation, it has so far raised over £1.5 million in 18 months, I hope that figure will rise in the next few weeks.

So farewell Sir Bobby. I will miss you; you were a lovely man, kind, warm, generous and gave me some wonderful times as an England fan. Football is a lesser sport with your loss.

“My condition is described as static and has not altered since my last bout of chemotherapy; I am going to die sooner rather than later. But then everyone has to go sometime and I have enjoyed every minute.” Sir Bobby Robson

“As a trainer without doubt Robson is one of the greatest in the world” Ronaldo

“He was like a father to me, I’ll never forget the love he showed me” Paul Gascoigne

Well, can things get any worse for Newcastle United than they currently are? One win in the league in 3 months, the manager still recovering from his triple heart bypass operation, crowds are falling, the caretakers pointing out, in case you’ve missed it, that Newcastle find themselves in a relegation battle and then today the English papers are full of a certain ex-England manager riding to the rescue of the Geordie nation.

Ah, the return of Terry Venables to the Premiership once again. Could he be the man to save Newcastle United from returning to the Championship, 16 years after they left it? A man who has given me some of my favourite footballing memories during his spells at Barcelona, Tottenham and England but has seen his stock fall rapidly with disastrous spells at Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and Leeds United during the beginning of the implosion for the Elland Road club.

Now El Tel has several contacts in the media and his name often crops up whenever high profile vacancies or situations are in the media, so it’s no real surprise to see this latest connection being made today but honestly, can Venables really save Newcastle United? I’m not so sure he’s got the clout to pull it off at all anymore. At Leeds United, his term there was dreadful and the club were in real danger of going down, despite having a much stronger squad than Peter Reid inherited, ultimately keeping them up.That was nearly six years ago now and Newcastle are in more trouble than Leeds United were when he took over. Venables has always been Teflon coated in the eyes of some media outlets in the UK, who conveniantly forget the Palace/Pompey/Leeds situations. In fact, for a glimpse of Newcastle potential future, they only have to cast eyes down the A1 towards West Yorkshire.

The report uses the usual British media tactic of ” a club insider told us” to give credence to the story,but ultimately, Venables has been so out of form managerially recently I can’t see there being any substance to it. As much I loved the memories of the 80′s and 90′s under Venables at White Hart Lane, I can’t seeing him being able to do anything to save Newcastle United. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me under the current regime if he did reappear at St James’ Park as interim manager until the end of the season such is the lack of football knowledge in the boardroom in Newcastle.

The Geordie fans may be thinking just what they’ve done to deserve this but ever since Bobby Robson was sacked after 4 games of the 2004/2005 season, Newcastle have fallen further and further down the table, seeing 5 managers and 3 caretakers try and fill his boots. What they would give for Robson to be anywhere near healthy to come in and save them but his battle with terminal cancer is catching up with him sadly. Mike Ashley’s made plenty of mistakes, hell, he’s hardly made any right decisions since coming in, but  getting Venables in would compound them all.

Newcastle are facing relegation in the face, with trips to Liverpool, Tottenham, Stoke and Aston Villa to come and the only bonus being that they’ve got to play Middlesbrough at home. To stay up, they need all the luck in the world to fall for them but with every passing defeat safety becomes a more distant prospect and the realisation that next season could see them playing at Barnsley, Peterborough and QPR will reduce the staunchest Geordie to tears. If Mike Ashley is serious of transforming Newcastles fortunes, he needs to prepare for relegation under Kinnear, wait until the end of the season and then ask SV Hamburg to name their price for Martin Jol and allow him to rebuild them in the Championship.

Tomorrow night sees a meeting between two of  Europe’s best coaches in the Champions League when Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United travel to Milan to face Jose Mourinho’s Inter side. Mourinho’s magic touch is still continuing in his current spell in Italy, with one trophy already safely stashed away with the SuperCoppa and 3 more on the horizon for Inter. Currently sitting 9 points clear of second placed Juventus and 10 ahead of fierce rivals A.C. Milan, Jose has continued his phenomenal run as a coach by now reaching 110 home games unbeaten in all competitions since 23rd February 2002.

English football has certainly been duller since Chelsea made the ultimate mistake by letting him leave by “mutual consent” back in September 2007, Chelsea haven’t won a trophy since and are now on their 3rd managerial replacement with a 4th lined up to take over from Guus Hiddink in the summer. Abramovich may have all the money, but he can’t buy the qualities that Mourinho gave the Blues and his 6 trophies in 3 seasons spoilt them. He took a Portugueseteam and won both European competitions in successive seasons when faced with richer, stronger opponents on the way, including beating Manchester United in the 2004 Champions League with a last minute goal from Costinha at Old Trafford that took them through.

Mourinho’s celebratory sprint down the line introduced him to the British public and no doubt his growing reputation was cemented with Porto’s success that season. Beating Lyon in the next round too was a impressive performance, Lyon were a better side than they are now and probably will never have as good a chance to finally add some European silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet as they did that season. In his last 3 jobs, as manager of Porto, Chelsea and now Inter he has collected 13 trophies and has an incredible winning percentage of 71% in all competitions.

The Inter job is probably the easiest one he’s had in his career so far, replacing Roberto Mancini last summer saw him take over the reigning Italian Champions so he had a more successful platform to move on from but he knows he will be judged on Inter’s success in the Champions League. Inter have spent over £600 million since president Massimo Morratti took over in 1995 but have only a lonely Cup Winners Cup trophy, won in 1998, as their only European silverware during his tenure to show for that investment. If anyone can take Inter to the next level, Jose Mourinho is the man.

If Inter knock Manchester United out of the Champions League this time, only Barcelona can stop Mourinho winning the title for the second time in my opinion, but to win it again would confirm his reputation as the best manager in the world. I know a lot of his critics accuse him of arrogance, but he simply has supreme self confidence, as he once again showed in his press conference when taking over at Inter, when he claimed to have learnt Italian in 3 weeks and dropped local terms in to his answers, showing once again his unbridled ability to work hard and continually push himself forwards.

Now that was impressive, both in linguistic ability and his attitude of soaking himself in local culture. Learning Catalan whilst at Barcelona was another excellent piece of P.R. for him, the Barcelona fans take anyone to their heart who learns the language. He perhaps strained that relationship with his antics in the clash during the 2005 Champions League, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go there after he’s finished his latest project in Italy.

A man that can speak 5 languages so fluently (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Catalan and now Italian), with trophies in 3 different countries and has a wonderful ability to wind his opponents up, after his spats with Wenger and Benitez in England and now Ranieri in Italy, often seems him come out on top in the mind games and a penchant for sartorial excellence. Yet he’s not always so spiky and outspoken, notably in the  fantastic relationships with other managers, such Sir Alex Ferguson, Martin Jol and Sir Bobby Robson.  Sometimes he can go too far, as the voyeur comments towards Wenger and his current fall out with Claudio Ranieri but he will apologise when he realises he’s gone too far. He loves his family and his Yorkshire Terrier dog, he demands respect from his players and they love him for it. He pushes himself constantly and strives for improvement. He wears his heart on his sleeve, announces targets and usually achieves them. He is a winner.

It looks as though the Serie A title is Inters, giving Mourinho his 14th trophy but Jose knows that only the Champions League will do to take Inter back to their golden period of the 1960′s.  As Inter are celebrating 100 years of unbroken top flight football, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Mourinho takes the Champions League again. He’s the real deal, the Special One and you can never rule any team he manages out of any competition.