Pride of Anglia - Ipswich Town Football Club

Sir Bobby Tributes

The world of football has been paying tribute to Sir Bobby Robson, who has died yesterday aged 76. Here are the memories of a few who played with and for him in a career that spanned six decades...

Ray Clemence

"It really is a sad day for football and football people. Our hearts got out to Elsie and Bobby's family. I was privileged enough to be out in Portugal three or four weeks ago for his charity golf tournament and sat at his table at the gala dinner and Bobby was fantastic.

"Obviously he looked very ill, but he was determined to travel out to Portugal for his charity tournament and help the Portuguese orphanage that he had raised so much money for. It was a special weekend and it was lovely to be around him; he was a special person as everyone has said.

"His honesty and enthusiasm for the game as a player and then a manager was there, right up to the very end. Whenever he spoke about football, even as ill as he was, his enthusiasm shone through; how he loved the game, cared for the game and wanted people to do well for the game."

Steve McCall

�It is very sad news and Bobby will be a big loss to the country.

�I count myself very lucky to have played under him and it was an honour to have known him.

�The first time I met him, when he signed me for Ipswich, there was a real aura about him, here was a guy you immediately knew was going to go places.

�Sure enough, he won trophies at virtually every club he managed and had great success with England, taking the team so close to the very top of the international game which we like to think is our rightful place.

�His man-management skills were second to none. He knew who needed a pat on the back and who needed a kick up the backside. He ran Ipswich Town from top to bottom and always understood what was needed.

�He is right at the top of anyone I have worked with in football, and the way he conducted himself was always so impressive.

�I spoke to him a few months ago at a get-together and although he wasn�t well he was always very determined to battle on.

�People around the country took to him. He was a big favourite of the masses, not just football people.

�He was an absolutely fantastic person and deserves every accolade going.�

Glenn Hoddle

"It's very sad for everyone and our feelings go out to Bobby's family and obviously for everyone in football, it's a very, very sad day.

"Playing under him, he was a very endearing man and you endeared yourself to him. He was quite a comical man - not knowingly sometimes - and a wonderful football man. You could see the respect the players gave him, around the world. The respect was worldwide.

"He was a very open and honest person. He was somebody that would talk to you, come up and tell you if you were playing well, indifferent, or if you were being left out of the team. He was one of those guys who you really did take to. You had respect for him and what he'd done in football but also off the pitch. He was a very charming man, but also a winner and to get that chemistry is very difficult - but Bobby had it in abundance."

Russell Osamn

"One of the keys to his success, in my opinion, was that he always found a balanced way of playing.

"He would have players that compliment each other in different areas, two central defenders that worked well together, two strikers that could play comfortably together, a back four that came together as a unit.

"In 1981, we had a side that all the pieces fitted together neatly. It was like putting a jigsaw together and he managed to do that throughout his career."

Jose Mourinho

"It is difficult to accept such a person is no longer with us but he is immortal because he leaves in everybody who knows him a mark of his personality. A great coach but, more than that, a great person.

"I hadn't spoken to him in the last two months because it was hard for me. It was me who found it hard because I didn't want to think that he was dying, that wasn't the image that I wanted to keep with me forever of Bobby Robson, that wasn't the voice I wanted to hear.

"I wanted to and I will keep with me always the Bobby Robson of every day, a person who had extraordinary passion for life and for football, with an extraordinary enthusiasm."

Sir Alex Ferguson

"In my 23 years working in England there is not a person I would put an inch above Bobby Robson.

"I mourn the passing of a great friend, a wonderful individual, a tremendous football man and somebody with passion and knowledge of the game that was unsurpassed.

"His character was hewn out of the coal face, developed by the Durham County mining background that he came from.

"His parents instilled in him the discipline and standards which forged the character of a genuinely colossal human being."

Paul Gascoigne

"I'm speechless. I'm devastated. Bobby was like my second dad. I was like a son to him. I've had loads of texts from football players, managers, everybody.

"I can't describe how much he meant to me. I've just been crying for three hours, and I've come to see my mum and my dad. It's just unbelievable."

Gordon Brown

�I was extremely saddened to hear of the death of Sir Bobby Robson. I had the privilege of meeting Bobby on many occasions. He epitomised everything that is great about football in this country. His passion, patriotism, dedication and professionalism knew no equal during his time both as a player and a manager. His remarkable achievements as manager of Ipswich town and then of England are among the most distinguished in English football history, and he was able to replicate that extraordinary success during his time at PSV Eindhoven, Porto and Barcelona.

�Over the past few years, he fought cancer with his characteristic tenacity and good humour. He will be sorely missed - not only in Newcastle and Ipswich, both of whom he served with such devotion, but by all sports fans in our country. My sincere condolences go to his wife Elsie and his family.�

George Burley

"Not only did he manage my career from the age of 15 when I signed for him at Ipswich, he also had a huge influence on my life.

"He brought me up as a person and I have always considered him to be a second father. Bobby was always there to offer me encouragement and to listen to any troubles or concerns that I might have had. That was the kind of man he was.

"He always wanted to help out his players and always looked out for the people that were close to him.

"I was with him and his wife Elsie and his three boys in Portugal just a few weeks ago. While it was sad to see that his health was failing, it was great to see him and to see the huge amount of affection that everyone has for him.

"As a football manager, he is one of the greatest of all time. He didn't just taste success here in Britain, he won trophies right across Europe. Quite simply, his record was phenomenal.

"Wherever he went, he took with him a passion and enthusiasm for the game and was renowned the world over as a wonderful ambassador for football.

"He was a huge inspiration to me as a player and he continued to be a mentor to me throughout my managerial career.

"Football has lost a legend and I have lost the man to whom I owe my career."

Michel Platini

"It is with great sadness that I learned today of the death of Sir Bobby Robson.

"He was a great ambassador for football and a true gentleman in everything he did. He will be remembered not only for his playing career and his outstanding managerial career at both club and international level, but also because he was a truly warm and passionate human being. My thoughts and condolences go to his wife and family at this time."

Marcus Evans

"I have been privileged in the 18 months I have been involved with Ipswich to have met Sir Bobby on a number of occasions, most recently at his golf tournament in Portugal. It always struck me how much love and admiration there was for him from not only from people in football but anyone that met him.

"Even though Sir Bobby faced his own challenges with his battle against cancer, he always made himself available and gave good, honest and friendly advice.

"He was a tireless worker for his charities and we at Ipswich will do everything in our power to continue the good work for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation in his memory."

Mick Mills

"I feel privileged, not only to have known him so well as a friend and colleague, but also to have worked in tandem with him over a long and hugely enjoyable chapter of our respective careers."

John Wark

"He was a top manager, not only of Ipswich but wherever he went after he left Portman Road in 1982, but he was much more than a manager to me.

"I lost my father when I was only 22 and Mr Robson was always there when I needed him. Even many years later I was still consulting him if I had a problem or needed some advice and he was always supportive.

" But it was his knowledge of the game, allied to his ability to bring out the best in his players, which set him apart from most of his contemporaries. He also loved to see youth team players come through the ranks. It made him extremely proud and when we met at his home this year he rhymed off the names of all the kids he turned into proper footballers.

"There are a lot of us who owe him a great deal."

Gary Lineker

"I was deeply saddened to hear of Bobby Robson's death. He was a great football man. He had a tremendous enthusiasm and passion for football and life and continued to retain this right to the last days of his life.

"He will be deeply missed by everyone, especially those who played for him. I have the fondest memories of playing for him at two World Cups.

"In recent years he undertook a great deal of work for his cancer charity and raised the profile considerably in addition to the monies raised."

Charlie Woods

"I was a player at Ipswich when Bobby took over. He walked through the door and was introduced to the playing staff by Mr John Cobbold and there was something that I really did feel was a bit special there straightaway. I don't know why.

"He had a little bit of charisma about him, you could tell that. Bobby knew how to treat people, on and off the pitch. He had a lot of compassion about him did Bobby but he could be tough if he wanted to be as well. One of his greatest sayings was `don't take my friendliness for a weakness'."

Pat Godbold

"One of the most important jobs of a manager in any industry is man management and Mr R really had that quality in abundance. He worked so hard for the Club as well.

"Very often he would be in his office at 8.30 in the morning and not leave until gone eight at night. I was lucky enough to work for him as his personal secretary for many years after he left the Club and he was a great man to work with.

"Everyone loved Mr R."

Jimmy Hill

"I remember him as a young man of 19-20 who was outstanding for his age and he was playing inside right for the Fulham team. I was playing that position before the manager realised that Bobby was old enough to play for the first team. I got pushed back to a midfield position which was my first introduction to him as a player.

"As a young man he appeared quiet and very well behaved but as he grew older and moved up in the game, his talent made him special and he had to grow up very quickly - he was a personality as well as a player. It was his pace that made him special - if someone put through a through ball he was onto it and he was a brilliant shot.

"As a manager, he was bright enough to have learned from those who he had played with to make things happen. He was extremely clever and enthusiastic which rubbed off onto his team. In those days you would take on every new idea or conception that came along. You would say yes because you were so thrilled to being on the football ladder. With his talent, well everybody wanted him."

David Sheepshanks

"Although everyone knew that he was seriously ill, he showed extraordinary courage in fighting cancer and that was very much to the fore when he attended the charity match at Newcastle last weekend in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.

"Sir Bobby will be missed dreadfully by the entire football world as much as by the people of Ipswich and Suffolk, for whom he became a favourite son.

"My memories are not only of a courageous man but also a brilliantly astute manager who positively enthused everyone around him with that infectious sense of passion for the game.

"He was truly a great man whose achievements with Ipswich Town are the stuff of legend, not forgetting his remarkable record elsewhere, including England who he guided to a World Cup Semi-Final.

"We will all remember him so fondly."

Roy Keane

"It was in the back of our minds today before the game. It was strange, in a sense. Only right that it was strange because of the loss of Sir Bobby this morning.

"It was good that we had to go out and the players were able to pay their respects. I was fortunate to meet him a few times. I spent ten minutes with him at the Sunderland training ground last year, and ten minutes in his company was enough for me to see what a great man he was.

"I'm very proud to be here to follow in the traditions and history that Sir Alf and Sir Bobby developed here. Look what Sir Bobby acheived. We have to follow that. I'm a bit of a dreamer, and I know Sir Bobby did not have it all his own way when he came here in his first few years, and he fought hard to develop the club.

"I might have to remind the media of that in the next few months if don't have it all our own way. But you have to believe."

Steve Staunton

�He was a great man, well regarded and revered throughout the whole world, not just England and Ireland, the whole world.

�His achievements in football . . . well, there aren�t many above him, that�s for sure. I�d met him before the Ireland job . . . you get to know people in football but I count myself lucky I�ve been one of few who had the privilege of working beside him and getting to know him personally. I�m grateful for that.

�His knowledge of football was outstanding but he was always a modest and gracious man who would go out of his way in many different ways to help people.�

�He fought his illness with great courage, but that was the measure of the man. He never wanted to let anyone down and I remember him trying to get on planes that even I was trying to persuade him he shouldn�t take.�

Jack Charlton

"He was a man dedicated to getting to know what other teams were like and he always used to be at football matches and I used to go to football matches. We just used to bump into each other, say hello, 'how's your mother doing?', that kind of thing. Geordie lads always stick together.

"He got the England job, which tells you how well he'd done. But my memory of Bob will always be when they lost to Germany in that penalty shoot-out and they put a camera on him and he just looked at it and shook his head. He never caused any aggravation, he never said bad things about the players, he was just very good with people.

"I've got fond memories of Bob. I've got a picture here I was going to get him to sign for me, but I kept forgetting to take it with me - I wish I had now. But he was a good lad and a good friend of mine and it was a bit of a blow this morning - but it was expected."

Kieron Dyer

"I only found out five minutes before the game (against Beijing Guoan) that he'd passed away, but they wanted me to play and I'm glad I did. It didn hit home (during the minute's silence) that he was gone and I think back home instead of a minute's silence, I would like to see a minute's applause to celebrate what he brought to the game of football.

"He was a wonderful man and when I was at Newcastle he took a real shine to me with the Ipswich connection and was like a father to me.

"When we were at Newcastle, we had a squad of 25 players and everyone was happy; in today's football with the multi-millionaire primadonnas that's very hard to do. He was a fighter, he beat cancer numerous times and I thought he would do it again - but unfortunately it wasn't to be."

Terry Butcher

"Everybody came to love him within the England team because of his manner and the way he got to know people. He made you feel special, he made you feel 10ft tall and you wanted to play for him.

"I think a lot of players all over the world - international quality players - loved him for what he was. He was a genuine, honest guy who loved his football and could talk all night and all day about football. He loved it so much."

John Barnes

"Bobby's so effervescent. If he'd beaten cancer - and I understand he was never going to - but it wouldn't have surprised us because he was such a lively person, a larger than life character and a fighter. These things happen and it's just terrible.

"I owe him so much. My England career is all down to Bobby Robson and not just that, it's the way he was as a human being. More important than the way he was as a football manager was the way he was as a human being, he was just a thoroughly decent human being and he will be sorely missed.

"He will be well remembered for everything he has achieved and much from my perspective - and a lot of the players who played with him - he will be a much bigger loss from a personal point of view. He was everybody's favourite great uncle, he was such a loveable man."

Roger Osborne

"Simply he was a workaholic. He would turn up at Ipswich at 9am and leave at 1am the next morning. He did that for 12-13 years, he was always at the club.

"It was quite easy for him to tell me I was dropped because he was forever dropping me. We had a small squad at the time and it was very close knit. He got it like that and players who tended to play for him tended to do it for 10-11 years - we had testimonial after testimonial.

"He came from Fulham where he was unfortunately sacked but he was a very determined young man. Everybody at Ipswich just took to Bobby and they loved him down this part of the country. We had the 30th year anniversary of the FA Cup final last year and Bobby came down for that. We went around the town in an open-top bus and we did say at the time that the crowds had not come to see us, they came to see Bobby."

Peter Reid

"It's a very sad day for English football and obviously my sympathies go out to Bobby's family. First of all he was a very warm man. If you can be a nice person and football manager, he was that nice person. He had a tremendous knowledge of the game and his enthusiasm was second to none.

"Even when I was managing up at Sunderland not so long ago and he was the rival manager at Newcastle at a ripe old age, he was still like a young man. He was always a gentleman, in victory and defeat, and it's a really sad day for English football.

"He got a few names wrong, but he always got his message across. Tactically he was very astute and from my point of view, playing under him and managing against him, he was just a really nice human being, a nice man. I am due home next week, so hopefully I can make the funeral; it would be nice to pay my respects to Sir Bobby."

Don Howe

"It is a sad day, and although we knew he was ill it still comes as a shock to the system. I have known him since the 50's when he got transferred from Fulham up to West Brom and we just gelled together. He was a standard man, whatever he talked about or did he wanted to do the best he could possibly do.

"When you got to know Bobby and the way he conducted himself, you could always sense his discipline and his standards. Everyone remembers Maradona and the 'Hand of God' and the huge outcry over that, but Sir Bobby always kept his calm. You can imagine what the dressing room was like with all the players upset that the referee had not seen the hand - Bobby just kept his cool all the way through it. He accepted that sometimes you get a decision from a referee that you have to just take. Sometimes you don't get the run of the ball - he always presented himself spot on and was first class.

"He loved the game and when he got the England job he made a great success of it - we did not win anything but we got close. He mixed well with the players but at the same time he never hesitated to show them that he was the boss. If he had to sort them out then he sorted them out. He wanted good football being played and wanted the players to have good discipline on and off the pitch."

Graham Taylor

"I'll always remember Bobby as a gentleman. We all know about his achievements in football and they are there for everybody to see, but the Bobby Robson that I will remember will be Bobby Robson the gentleman.

"I first met Bobby in the very early '70s when I was a young manager at Lincoln City. I met him at a coaching course at Lilleshall and he invited me to go and spend a day with him at Ipswich to see what he was doing.

"For a manager to do that for a young manager was something and you don't get that too often today, so I owe Bobby Robson a lot."

Bishop of Durham Tom Wright

"In a diocese which rejoices in support for at least two football teams, there is a respect and affection for Sir Bobby which crosses boundaries. His leadership within the whole community of the region has been an example to so many."

Martin O'Neill

"He was held in very high regard by the players. They forgave all his eccentricities - it was legendary that he didn't know anyone's name.

"He had a fantastic career. Early on in the managerial stakes he had fights. Fulham got rid of him and then he went to Ipswich.

"He signed Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren, who were fantastic players.

"Thijssen was my kind of player because he dribbled everywhere. He signed proper players and made Ipswich a proper side.

"Then he went to have the time with England, went abroad, furthered his education at places like Barcelona. He will be badly missed."