Some wise and hopefully helpful words from Sir Bobby Robson which may be useful to us all this season... 'What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.' Then again, he also said... “We didn't underestimate them. They were a lot better than we thought.”
I had the honour of meeting him when we members of the Surrey FA beginners coaching course had a day out in Ipswich. He was only supposed to spend 5 minutes with us doing a formal welcome and introducing us to less well-known members of his staff, but ended up spending an hour and talking to each of us in turn for a few minutes. One of my all-time footballing heroes. I doubt a club as small as Ipswich will ever win the top tier again, though no doubt Bournemouth will give it a go. I added a few phrases with which to impress my lads after that trip. Previously my repertoire was limited to "Get behind the ball" and "Get rid of it".
As much as I love the man and in his case he probably was the nicest man in football ever! (sorry Sir Chris but it's true) but on this he was wrong, ask any current Newcastle fan how they feel about the 'Toon' and they will tell you that it is hard to love it as they used to with Ashley in charge.
