A hard year but Robbo always has time to talk
BRYAN ROBSON tried his best to find the positives but the conversation was strained. At the other end of the phone line, it wasn’t much better.
As West Bromwich Albion’s coach rumbled away from Upton Park last Saturday, Robson’s thoughts — cluttered following a 1-0 defeat that pushed his side back to the relegation precipice — had turned to his close friend, Birmingham manager Steve Bruce.
‘ I rang him to see how they had got on,’ says Robson. ‘It’s not easy in these situations. He’s had a rough time of late and we try to keep each other’s spirits up. We share opinions and it always helps to talk things over.’
The fact Bruce had suffered a similar fate, losing 1-0 at Newcastle to leave Birmingham languishing in 19th place, meant the chat was not the chirpiest between the two.
They often meet up for dinner with wives in tow. Bruce with Jan and Robson with Denise. It is a comfortable environment forged while neighbours in the plush Cheshire suburb of Hale and in helping lay the foundations for Manchester United’s resurgence.
‘ We go out for a meal now and again,’ says Robson, who marked one year in charge at Albion yesterday. ‘ The conversations are serious. We’re both serious about what we do but you can’t go on about it too much with the girls around. They wouldn’t put up with it. You can only talk so much football. You have to lighten the mood and have a bit of fun.
‘It’s important you can escape. I’ll watch a bit of TV to wind down when I’m home and make sure I spend time with the family, maybe even get a few days away. You have to, otherwise you’d go mad.’
As Bruce will testify, Robson’s sensitive side has never been in doubt. Paul Gascoigne and Paul Merson are two characters who benefited in life from the former England captain’s gentle touch.
At Middlesbrough it was even levelled as a criticism; that he was too nice with his players. That’s not the image Robson portrays behind the dressing room door now, though.
Nigerian striker Kanu said Robson was the angriest he had seen him after last month’s 3-0 capitulation to Newcastle. The manager even sent out Darren Moore and Neil Clement to explain themselves to the media afterwards.
‘ That was the angriest I’ve seen the gaffer after a match and he does not want us to concede goals like that again,’ said Kanu. ‘The spirit of the players is very high and we want to do something for him. We don’t want to see him angry again.’
Robson sees it differently. He still calls former mentor Sir Alex Ferguson and values the contribution of his assistant Nigel Pearson, but he is a stronger individual for coming through a tough 12 months and arguably the greatest relegation escape of modern times. ‘ I’m no harsher on the lads now than I was when they lost to Birmingham and Liverpool last season,’ he said. ‘I do lose my temper but I don’t throw tea cups. If I criticise, I want it to be constructive.
‘I just want to make sure I get my point across and they understand. A lot of our defeats are down to mistakes, lapses in concentration, things that we can prevent. They are a good bunch of players but they have to eradicate these errors.’
With two wins from 12 games, Robson is well aware of the comparisons with last season. Then, a bonding trip to Orlando, coupled with the January arrival of Kevin Campbell, Kieran Richardson and Richard Chaplow, gave impetus to their survival mission. ‘ It was the first time a lot of the lads had been together outside of work and it gave them the chance to really get to know each other,’ he recalled.
‘ We went to Orlando but the weather wasn’t great. It was cloudy so we still trained them every day, but we let them play a lot of golf, then go into the pleasure parks on Adventure Island and Wet and Wild.
‘ You could see a difference. The players were sticking together as a group, laughing and talking. There was no boredom, no time to really dwell on things back home, just enjoy each other’s company.
‘ When we came back everyone was talking about the team at the bottom come Christmas never surviving, so we said: “Right, let’s change this”. We used it as a motivational tool.
‘ No disrespect to Portsmouth, but I knew that if we got down to that last fixture at home and were still in the frame, we had a better chance than anyone else. We said to the players if you were Palace, Southampton or Norwich you would be wanting our fixture — and they did their job.’
Talk of last season’s achievement is still difficult to avoid at The Hawthorns but, while Robson will discuss it privately, it is a taboo subject for the players.
‘ Last season is history. We don’t want to be in that position again. They have to concentrate on now, on kicking on. I really believe the players are good enough to make sure of that.’
s.jones@dailymail.co.uk