Some boy! Football today? He must be doing summersaults in his grave! As a passionate Sunderland fan at the time it was my duty to hate everything NUFC with a passion. Bobby Robson was the one thing about them which ensured that I couldnt
Seen worse starts. I do wonder how Cashley would have treated Sir Bobby. Would he have dared try it on. Best manager we have ever had in my lifetime, Sir Bob, a true gent and a true Geordie.
Met him a few times and he was the loveliest, politest chap you could ever meet. My brother in law built his extension and him and Elsie used to go out with the tea tray and bikkies every few hours to look after them.
His first game at SJP that is, his first actual game was a 0-1 defeat at Chelsea. Loved our Bobby, awesome guy and great manager. He'd probably taken us as far as he could, but Sheppard really dropped an almighty bollock when he replaced Robson with Souness. Until Rafa, we've not even had a manager that even compares to Bobby.
Everybody loved SBR but I wasn't alone in thinking he was nearing his sell by date about the end of his time with us. The clanger wasn't so much as to replace him as manager but to do it mid-season. If we had waited until the summer, we would have had our pick rather than having to take whoever was available, like Souness.
I agree to a certain extent. There was a feeling amongst the fans at that time that SBR had reached or was reaching the end of the line no matter what peoples rose tinted glasses may say. It wasn't mid season but a few games in ( about 7-10 from memory but not bothering to look it up) and it was the timing and manner which was all wrong. Should have been a step upstairs type offer in the previous summer and guiding hand on new young promising manager. Compounded by appointing Souness who Blackburn didn't even want when we got him and paid them compensation to boot. Souness was a walking disaster from day one. My youngest said it from day one but I foolishly said no give him time. Boy was she right.
I don't think he was done to be honest. History told us his teams were always slow starters. There was no mid season, it was 4 games and that was a joke. He was running out of contract anyway and they had already told him they would not be renewing. A good season may have changed that but the least he deserved was a bit of respect. Who knows. Maybe he was on the slide. All I know is he had always made strange decisions along the way and nothing much appeared to have changed looking in from the outside. Perhaps there was more to it with player power or there being bad signs on the training field, but I think to the outside world it must have looked a really poor decision. There were some fans who were no longer happy though, I'd agree with that. I think if we are 10-15 games in and we don't pick up then questions can be asked but to do that after 4 games to a bloke who had single handedly turned the ship around 5 years before was a dark day in our history.
