Robinson putting player welfare before personal gain with Oxford
League One manager is looking beyond cup tie with West Ham tonight, he tells Jason Burt
Karl Robinson recalls preparing for a cup tie against Chelsea by having to use a school playing field. Except it was only half the field, with the other half being used for a PE lesson. “It was going on behind me with a teacher blowing his whistle,” Robinson says. “And we were trying to prepare to face Chelsea live on TV with millions watching.
“We had half a school pitch on the outskirts of Milton Keynes and we could only do some very small shape [work] and our chairman said to me after the game, ‘Our shape didn’t look too good’. I just laughed to myself.
“It’s not great as a coach, but it almost gives you a sense of the purity of the game and the reasons why we love it. It was jumpers for goalposts.”
Chelsea put out a strong team – including Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa – in that FA Cup fixture in 2016 because of what had happened the season before. Robinson’s MK Dons had beaten Manchester United in the League Cup. Not just beaten them, but humiliated them 4-0.
“During the game, Danny Welbeck ran past me at unbelievable speed and I was chuckling to Richie [Barker, the assistant manager],” Robinson says. “The wind these players generate with their power and athleticism as they run … Then we scored a really good goal and I said to Richie, ‘At least we’ve scored, we’ve got our fans on their feet’. Then we scored a fantastic second goal and I said to Richie, ‘We could get a draw here’. We made it three and Richie says, ‘3-3 is a great result’. We scored the fourth and I said, ‘Surely it’s over now, Richie?’”
It was. The result helped put MK Dons – promoted to the Championship that season – on the map. “The football world hated the club but that result and that performance softened things. I just wanted people to give us an inch.
“But weirdly, because of the Man United result, teams were thinking, ‘We can’t go there with a few changes’,” Robinson says, with Chelsea heeding that lesson, winning 5-1, as Manchester City did in beating Oxford United, the club he now manages, 3-0 in the Carabao Cup last season.
Tonight, the League One side face West Ham United in the same competition. There is ambition at Oxford. They may be in 12th place, but the expectation is that promotion to the Championship can be achieved.
An impressive training facility opened recently behind the city’s Mini car plant, while the promise of Thai owner Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth is to take back ownership of their ground, the Kassam Stadium, although Oxford fans have heard that before.
Robinson is all about development. His track record includes bringing through Dele Alli, Ademola Lookman and, when they were youngsters, Trent Alexander-arnold, Conor Coady and Harry Wilson.
He started coaching early, working at Liverpool’s academy with Steve Heighway. At 29, he took his first management job at MK Dons, before laying the foundations at Charlton Athletic for Lee Bowyer. He turned 39 this month, the day before he took charge of his 500th game. Robinson has ambitions to work abroad and to manage in the Premier League, but his conversation comes back to one theme: building Oxford and driving the investment in younger players.
“The human approach is important and some coaches forget that,” Robinson says. “They have lovely cones out in a straight line and managers give dossiers out. We all have dossiers, but you don’t have to talk about them. It’s the human element that matters. There are so many kids here who won’t make it but we have a duty of care.
“My wife is a mental health first-aider and we talk a lot about the pressure put on young people. These kids have got to cope with school, wanting to be a professional footballer and wanting to be accepted. I have a real desire to make these kids understand they have a pathway, but it’s not the only pathway.
“I love coaching and I’d back myself against anyone as a coach, but I can’t control a result. I can help control making a kid happy.”
The idealism has to be balanced with pushing Oxford forward, with some supporters frustrated at the rate of progress under Robinson.
“We finished 10th last year, which was the second-highest finish in 26 years, and that was the lowest I thought I’d ever finish,” he says. “I just think we’ve got two or three years to get out of this league and then, if everything is right, putting more money into the team. That’s the master plan.
“The longevity of the club is far more important than short-term personal gain. I could have come here and blown everyone’s money. I know how to win games and get out of this league. And I know how to win quickly, but it can cost a lot of money and it can put a club in a horrendous place.”
He expects Oxford to be patient. But where does he see himself when he reaches 1,000 games as a manager? “If there are lots of players out there playing and clubs who I worked for who are in a better place then I will be happy,” Robinson says. “It’s more important for me to be a good person than a good manager.”