Well it’s been a while, too long in fact, since my last blog. With holidays, decent weather (I say decent, I really mean there’s some breaks in-between showers) and a few other things that kept getting in the way. Anyways, I felt it fitting to begin again with a small tribute to a legend – Sir Bobby Robson.
It was only when I watched the fantastic BBC tribute programme to the former footballer and manager that I realised how much good work outside of football that he actually did.
Doing so much charity work while also balancing his career and battles with cancer –beating the disease four times before it eventually got the better of him last Friday – is truly amazing.
During this time it was likely that by associating his name to his and other cancer charities he indirectly saved many lives, a success that outshines any trophy he ever won.
One other thing that I never knew about Robson, was the torment he went through with the English media during his tenure as the national coach.
Caught in the middle of a tabloid war at the time, The Sun and The Daily Mirror used him as a pawn in their readership battle.
In a way it wasn’t personal, as whoever was the manager at the time would have received the same shocking treatment but it was harsh and a lot of it over the top.
However, it was the way in which he dealt with it that proved again what a terrific person he was.
Maintaining a good relationship with other members of the press and attending lunches put on for him by the media after the 1990 World Cup, showed he could still show respect, maybe not to the reporters and editors who hung him out to dry, but to the others who didn’t. Too often today people involved in sport tar all journalists with the same brush.
How fitting that the last game of football he was to ever attend was an England win over Germany with the winning goal being a penalty, even if it was only a charity match I’m sure he enjoyed a win over the Germans.
