Robinson cools talk of Cherries job

STEPHEN Robinson has indicated that he will not be leaving Motherwell for Bournemouth this summer.

After Eddie Howe departed the recently-relegated Cherries by mutual consent last weekend, the Ulsterman was understood to be on a shortlist of potential successors.

Robinson played for the club for six years after signing from Tottenham in 1994, making 288 appearances and scoring 62 goals as they remained in the third tier of English football throughout.

He played alongside current assistant manager Jason Tindall and technical director Richard Hughes, but Robinson has indicated there will be no reunion.

“I think I’ve been linked with every job in Scotland and England,” he said. “No, I’m fully concentrated on Motherwell. There’s no truth in those rumours.

“I think it’s credit to the players. If you’re winning matches then you get linked with jobs — some true, some not. You’ve got to just keep doing it and concentrating on the job at hand.

“I’ve said it continually, football bites you in the bum if you don’t do the job in front of you.”

The links to a club with immediate ambitions to return to the Premier League are testament to the job Robinson has done at Motherwell, having secured Europa League football with a third-place finish last term.

He was, of course, one of the interviewees to succeed Michael O’neill as Northern Ireland manager but ultimately lost out to his close friend and former international U21 boss Ian Baraclough.

Robinson’s Motherwell lost 1-0 at Ross County on Monday in their first game of the new season.