https://www.lfchistory.net/Articles/Article/1743 https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/dec/12/newsstory.sport6 Peter Robinson the man who has piloted Liverpool through 35 years punctuated with both success and tragedy, is on the brink of walking away from the club. Robinson, the club's 63-year-old executive vice chairman, has intimated to the Anfield chairman, David Moores, and the board that he intends to leave his post at the end of the season. He joined them in 1965 before Liverpool won the FA Cup at Wembley and his presence has been influential through the managerial reigns of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe ***an, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Roy Evans and Gérard Houllier - a period during which Liverpool have won 28 major trophies. He is 'Mr Liverpool'. Robinson has been grooming Rick Parry, founding chief executive of the Premier League, as his eventual successor. Parry, the Liverpool chief executive since 1997, currently has control over commercial matters outside the domain of the football manager. Robinson - known by his initials PBR to friends and colleagues - still retains control over all business matters relating to the team such as players' contracts and shirt sponsorship. Advertisement If Robinson does go, and he answered the query with 'I've not yet made a decision about what I will do', then it will end a regime universally acknowledged as one of the most astute and influential in modern European football. So far, the board have not ordered him to think again. He helped turn an under-achieving, big-city club into the most powerful side in Europe throughout the late Seventies and early Eighties. Helped by the Sixties Mersey Boom that made all things Liverpudlian instantly fashionable, he was instrumental in the Shankly era laying the foundations for the successes achieved under Paisley and ***an. Yet the manner of his appointment perhaps did not augur well. After serving Stockport, Crewe, Scunthorpe and Brighton he was recommended to Liverpool by Fleet Street sports reporter Reg Drury. Liverpool were in trouble as the previous secretary had hanged himself from a turnstile, overcome with stress. Not daunted, and in tandem with long-serving chairman John Smith, he put in place managerial practices and methods that were years, if not decades, ahead of their time. Shankly and Paisley, for example, were encouraged to coach and manage only the team - the 'club' was PBR's domain and he ran it, from his office, like a personal fiefdom. He would consult the manager about transfer targets. A 'wish list' would then be drawn up and Robinson and chairman Smith would sign the players. Often, it was said, players would arrive at Anfield without the manager being sure a signing was imminent. Ray Kennedy and Terry McDermott are just two examples. The former was a 'Shankly signing' the great old manager hardly knew had arrived; the latter was grabbed from Newcastle just weeks after Liverpool had outclassed the Geordies in the FA Cup final. Paisley was pleased and pleasantly surprised by the deal. Both players formed a cornerstone of the side that went on to make Liverpool synonymous with success in Europe under Paisley, winning three European Cups. Off the field, Robinson was even more influential. He orchestrated Britain's first shirt-sponsorship deal, pairing Liverpool with Hitachi, a revolutionary move at the time. Robinson also grasped the importance of TV to football and was a key figure for many years in discussion with both the BBC and ITV. Joe ***an continued the Boot Room line. Another European title was won and perhaps ***an's brief tenure would have been extended had he not been in charge of the side on the night of the Heysel disaster in May 1985. That finished ***an and ended Liverpool's era of dominance abroad. Robinson, however, coped. Kenny Dalglish leapt ahead of the Boot Room to become the club's first player-manager and lead Liverpool to their first Double. But soon Robinson had to coax the club through another tragedy, Hillsborough. He did it in his own unflappable way. But perhaps the strain affected everyone at Anfield, Robinson included. Success has since proved elusive and now Liverpool, without a trophy in five years, find themselves playing second fiddle, at best, to Manchester United. Now, when his office door closes behind him for the last time, Robinson will at last be able to indulge himself in a few of his interests away from the game - Test cricket and Big Band music. It will be a wrench for, as he said: 'I have had the opportunity to work away from Liverpool Football Club but I have certainly never had the desire.'
The club's personality changed after he left, possibly not for the better some might argue. A good servant to the club for many years.
