My first recollection of England was in 1973 when they failed to qualify for the World Cup with supposedly a very talented squad of players who failed to beat mediocre appointments. Sound familiar?
On Sunday Bobby Robson was presented with the Lifetime Achievment Award as part of the BBC Sportsman of the Year programme. One of those meaningless awards and meaningless programmes, which in reality offers nothing more than a good review of the sporting year.
But as the England team are amidst another crisis, it’s a good time to consider just how good and how close Bobby Robson came to taking England to two World Cup finals.
In 1986 England was beaten in the quarter finals, not on penalties, but by one man and the ‘hand of God’. Maradonna’s second goal in that game proved why Peter Reid was not an international class player, while Maradonna was quite possibly the best individual footballer of all time, as he single-handedly lead a poor Argentina to become World Champions.
In 1990, the England team was possibly the most talented group of players post 1966. Chris Waddle, Gary Lineker, Stuart Pearce, Peter Shilton and of course, Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne. Unfortunately, it was the start of England losing by dreaded penalty shoot-outs. England reached the semi-finals that year and was only beaten by arch rivals Germany when Pearce and Waddle missed the target.
Leaving aside his fantastic achievements in club football with the likes of Ipswich, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon and Barcelona, his record as England manager was second only to Sir Alf Ramsey. And like with Ramsey before him, the FA treated him pretty badly when they decided it was time for a change.
On Sunday a group of past players circled the stage as Sir Alex Ferguson presented Bobby Robson with his award. The last great English England manager? we shall see.
1 comment so far
1 jane learmouth // Dec 13, 2007 at 10:43 am
sir bobby robson is a gentalman. i had been visiting my son in newcastle . and on the way home who should get on the plain mr robson . i told my then 12 year old daughter who he was . on leaveing the plain my daughter asked for his autagrath. and told him that Martin peters who played in the 1966 world cup was her dads god father and a friend of the family . mr robson then asked her to pull his suit case for him he chatted to her for a whill then gave her his autagrath on a sick bag ha ha she will never forget him and offten tells people what happend