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164 pages

English

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Black and White Knight: How Sir Bobby Robson Made Newcastle United Again is a story of rebirth and redemption. Fractured, disillusioned and second bottom in the Premier League, the Magpies were heading one way under Ruud Gullit: down. The magic of Kevin Keegan's 'Entertainers' era was a distant memory, but in September 1999, Sir Bobby Robson, a son of County Durham, returned home and became a catalyst for change. Talisman Alan Shearer was smiling and scoring, and everyone was dreaming again. Three years later, Newcastle qualified for the Champions League, where they went toe-to-toe with the likes of Inter Milan, Barcelona and Juventus, making history on an amazing journey and playing a brand of football full of energy, verve and attacking intent. A genius in man-management, Sir Bobby's experience and aura gave the club its soul back; Black and White Knight details how he mended divisions and massaged egos to make Newcastle everyone's second favourite team once again.

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Northumberland

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	15 mars 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785319082
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Harry De Cosemo, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785317637
eBook ISBN 9781785319082
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Contents
Foreword by George Caulkin
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Sliding Doors
2. The Kindest Man
3. Laying The Groundwork
4. Reaching The Next Level
5. Christmas Number One
6. The History Boys
7. Magic In Milan
8. Cracks Begin To Show
9. The Summer Of Discontent
10. The Cruellest Cut
11. Managing A Team Again
Bibliography
Photos
Foreword by George Caulkin
THE FIRST thing you noticed about Sir Bobby Robson was his stature. He was a big man, a bear of a man, something that didn t really come across from afar. He was tough as teak, too. Tough enough to physically fight with his players in the early days at Ipswich Town, when he was struggling to impose his authority. He had a tunnel-vision obsession for football and for work, and his family would suffer for it.
Those elements of his character are worth mentioning, because if you knew Bobby and loved him, the easiest thing to do is sanctify his memory. We are all guilty of it and we do it because the other parts of his personality, the more celebrated parts, are all true. He was dignified and proud and funny and solicitous and engaging, with a deep curiosity about other people and what made them tick. But the football bit? Stubborn, certain and relentless.
It is still difficult to grasp that Bobby played on the same pitch as Jackie Milburn and managed Alan Shearer, Milburn s successor as Newcastle United s greatest goalscorer; that he watched Albert Stubbins, his childhood hero, at St James Park and inspired Jermaine Jenas there six decades later; that he nurtured the coaching talent of Jos Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. He was a titan who spanned generations.
I ve written before that Bobby carried stardust with him. It s a romantic notion, but it s the best way I can describe it. When you spent time in his company, that stardust rubbed off. His former players tell stories of knocking on his office door, full of fury at being left out of the team, and then leaving a few minutes later, feeling inches taller, feeling happy and fulfilled and also feeling baffled. How the hell did that happen?
I ve got a bit of experience of that. I worked with Bobby on his final book, which was about Newcastle the club and the city. His body was failing by then. He was grievously ill with cancer, a disease he wrestled with for so long, but which never defined him. But our sessions together, poring over old photographs and sifting through his memory, felt like sustenance. I would leave feeling so guilty, as if I was draining existence from him.
Our relationship stretched through my lifetime, not that he had been aware of it. I had followed him to Langley Park Infant School in County Durham just when he was working miracles at Portman Road. He was always an aspirational figure. When he became England manager, when he led his team to Italia 90, he was part of a narrative which changed my life and football in this country forever.
The 1980s were not fun in the North East; they were full of industrial strife. Many of us felt battered by the government, left to rot by the rest of the country. Being a football fan was not easy; the game was dirty and violent and spurned. Bobby s side, crammed with local talent like Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Bryan Robson and, most notably, Paul Gascoigne, made me feel English in a way I hadn t before and haven t since. They were us. England was ours.
When Bobby returned to Newcastle as manager, I ghostwrote his column for The Times , which was hardly an onerous task. He had such a way with words, such a colourful turn of phrase. When he left - undermined by the club s hierarchy and desperately upset by it - we kept in touch. We d natter about football, gossip about Newcastle and he would tut and shake his head. Then came the book and a heavy responsibility. I knew it was part of his legacy.
So he d gone from hero to colleague to mentor and then finally to friend. On a couple of awkward occasions, I tried to explain exactly what he meant to me and I m not sure he quite understood, but it blurred those professional edges. In the end, I donated my fee for the book to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, not because I m a wonderful person or couldn t have done with the money, but because I was so very desperate to make him proud
It makes me proud again that, all these years later, Harry has kindly involved Bobby s foundation in his own book about Newcastle. It amazes me that he feels Bobby s spirit spanning the generations. It is the most humbling part about the foundation, that people who didn t know Bobby and probably don t remember him can be inspired to raise funds on his behalf, to pull on a pair of running shoes for the first time, to challenge themselves to help others, to support the way we treat and research cancer.
Bobby s spell at Newcastle is like a dream now and I wish I could relive it, to remind myself of the club it can be when it puts its mind to it, to feel that buzz of possibility in the city. I wish I could sit with him again and soak up his knowledge and not take it for granted. This book is the next best thing. You ll see the hard work, the sacrifice, the hours Bobby put in to lift Newcastle from the bottom to the top of the Premier League, to take us so close. And I will scour the pages in search of his stardust.
Acknowledgements
I NEVER met Sir Bobby Robson, much to my regret, yet he still had a profound impact on me from an early age. It has been a real honour delving into his life through those who knew him best. I ve become humbled by the journey writing this book has taken me on. He is somebody I could talk about for hours on end, and I have loved being able to put that energy to good use over the past few rather difficult months caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
My dad, Mark, first introduced me to Newcastle United, St James Park and Sir Bobby as a six-year-old. Without him, those journeys up the A19 every other Saturday and the opportunities they afforded me, this book simply wouldn t have been possible. It means a great deal to me that I can repay him in a small way with something that makes me so incredibly proud. I can t wait for him to read it.
To my mum, Gill, my brothers, James and Richard, and my best mate, Pete, thank you for being there for me when I ve needed you most.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Liz Luff at the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation for all of her help. From first meeting in the Copthorne Hotel on the Quayside in Newcastle to discuss my tentative idea, to aiding me in sourcing crucial interviews and proofreading, she played a huge role in making this book a reality.
Mark Robson, Sir Bobby s youngest son, has been gracious and supportive throughout the process, making me feel at ease as I have strived to do his dad justice. I very much hope he, his mother, Lady Elsie Robson, and two brothers, Paul and Andrew, will enjoy reading what is a heartfelt tribute to a cherished member of their family, as well as a detailed account of a brilliant football manager s impact on his club and region.
Chris Waugh and Andrew Musgrove, two of my closest press room allies on a St James Park match day, have my sincere thanks for their help contacting interviewees and offering thoughts and advice. George Caulkin, who supplied brilliant insight into Sir Bobby s reign and personality as well as writing a typically beautiful and emotive foreword, deserves immense recognition for his sizeable contribution.
Writing this book during the pandemic has been a great focus for me. At a time when supporters are not allowed to attend football matches, I am reminded of a quote from Sir Bobby s final book, Newcastle: My Kind Of Toon, ghostwritten by George.
What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.
This quote perfectly encapsulates his feelings for Newcastle United and the base from which he built his five-year reign. It also magnifies all that has gone wrong at the club in recent years as they strive for little more than to exist purely as a business, with minimal desire to demonstrate any capacity to compete or offer their loyal supporters any room to dream. Simply fulfilling obligations and making decisions based around profit is the norm under Mike Ashley, and the stories detailed in the following 11 chapters have become nothing more than exactly that: stories.
I can relate to the sentiment behind these words; that feeling, after walking up seven flights of stairs to our seats in the Milburn Stand, of seeing