BIG INTERVIEW
Oxford boss Karl Robinson reflects on his managerial experiences
KARL Robinson celebrates three years in charge of Oxford United tomorrow, but the 40-year-old isn’t one for looking back. Mainly, because it makes him cringe.
“I was 29 when I started at MK Dons,” says the former Liverpool youth player. “And I’ve changed a hell of a lot in those 11 years. “I look at some of the things I said and did, the fights I took on that didn’t need to happen. It’s so embarrassing, some of it.
“But that’s the fearless nature of youth, isn’t it? Fighting your corner, not understanding the consequences of your actions. And you know what they say: some of the best teachers you’ll ever have are your own mistakes. That’s certainly been the case for me.”
In fairness to Robinson, he hasn’t erred often, the notable exception a turbulent 18-month stint at Charlton which was terminated at his own behest in 2018.
In six years at MK Dons, he nurtured the likes of Dele Alli and Patrick Bamford to stardom, selling almost £40m worth of talent and earning automatic promotion to the Championship in 2015. Along the way, he rejected an offer to manage Leeds.
At Oxford, Robinson built on the foundations laid by Michael Appleton and Pep Clotet to reach last season’s League One play-off final.
Wycombe denied Robinson a second crack at the Championship but the U’s are once again in the mix. Should they return to Wembley, the Oxford boss will be nudging 600 games in the dugout.
“It’s crazy,” he admits. “Every now and then, people will tell me I’ve done more games than this manager or that manager. People I admire and look up to.
“People who know me will tell you that I never get too carried away with stuff like that. But in the quieter moments, it is something I think about and feel immensely proud of.
“It seemed such a distant
dream right in the beginning. So to reach 600 before I’m 41, which will probably be the case, I feel so fortunate to have worked with so many good people and supportive owners.”
Perhaps even excessively supportive, as Robinson candidly concedes.
“There are times in this past 11 years when, looking at things objectively, I probably deserved the sack,” he says.
Timing
“At the same time, there are times when I probably deserved a move I didn’t get. There’ve been some big jobs along the way, two really big jobs that I’ve turned down. I had contracts put in front of me, but I didn’t think the timing was right. One of those, I do regret.
“But I’m still here, still doing the job I love. And that’s what I cherish. My wife (the former Brookside actress Anne Marie Davies) is very calm, very detached from football. This Tuesday, she didn’t even realise we had a game.
“And I need that, because I’m immersed in it. She often says ‘Haven’t you thought about doing something different at home to switch off? A hobby or something’.
“But what I always say is that I love my job. Watching football, picking up ideas - that is my hobby!”
Family is important to Robinson, which is partly why he answered the summons from Sumrith ‘Tiger’ Thanakarnjanasuth shortly after the current Oxford owner bought the club in February 2018.
“The reason I came initially was because I was spending too much time away from my wife and my daughter,” says Robinson.
“She’d moved a number of schools, and I wasn’t willing to do it again because she found it difficult.
“This club gave me an opportunity to be at home every night, to be around my family and do all those normal things. Having that stable life, it allows you to be a lot calmer in work, and that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned on this journey.
“My daughter is 15 next weekend, so she was four when I started out. She’s lived her whole life through the experience of me being a manager. Going to school, getting stick, seeing me say those embarrassing things
“But I’m very lucky. She’s a very hardy young kid and she actually finds the negative aspects of the job quite funny at times. We’re very close, very similar. She’s one of my best friends in the world and she’s been on every up and down with me.”
So far, it has proved a marriage of convenience for both parties, with Oxford - after an initial wobble - just two points shy of the top six pre-weekend.
Philosophy
“We’re doing OK,” he says. “But we’re due some luck. When Covid hit last season, we were third, two points behind second having won five games on the spin. We thought we could get automatic.
“Then we got Wycombe in the final, missed three or four good chances, had 70 per cent possession and lost to an offside goal. That had a big negative impact on the club, and it did linger into this season.
“But even when we were struggling, our Xg (expected goals) was always in the top six. We knew that if we stuck to our philosophy that results would change, because we base ourselves on the process, not the outcome.”
And if the outcome is promotion, Robinson is determined to learn from the mistakes of 2015, when he hung on at MK Dons despite sky-high stock and a rock-bottom budget.
Relegated at the end of the season, Robinson was sacked shortly into the following campaign, just months after spurning Leeds.
“There’s a lot of things that people forget about that season,” he says, the disappointment still audible five years on.
“They forget that, other than Yeovil, I had the smallest budget in the Championship. Smaller than Wycombe’s is now.
“That I lost 57 goals out of the team that got promoted, with Dele Alli, Benik Afobe and Will Grigg. That we never spent a penny in the transfer window, nor in January.
“I look back and my biggest regret is that I didn’t leave when I wasn’t backed in the transfer window. I should have gone.
“The big thing I learned was not to accept what you’ve done. Don’t just accept the restraints of your budget. Try to challenge it and find a way to push on. These 11 years, that’s all I’ve ever really tried to do.”