Bobby Robson

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:08

The programme was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:30

It's true to say I think that our castaway today is facing the most difficult task of a long and distinguished career. He's the man who leads the English footballers to Mexico in the quest for the World Cup. If England win the World Cup he'll be hailed as a hero. We won't talk about what might happen if they don't, except to say that a desert island might be the perfect place for him to retire to. He's the manager of England, Bobby Robson. Bobby, do you think he might be exiled to the Desert Island or what? Are you confident?

Bobby Robson0:57

Yes, I'm very optimistic. I mean, we're in the middle of a very good run. We're unbeaten, going very well, and the team is confident and we're very hopeful. We're looking forward to it very much. And at the moment, the mood of the team is that

Bobby Robson1:07

We're not afraid of any one.

Presenter1:08

Well, Mrs. Sam and all our good wishes go with you. Is there one piece of music to start off the programme that sums up your mood at present?

Bobby Robson1:14

Well, yes, there is. I think Pomp and Circumstance number one by Elgar. It has the fervour, it has the passion, and it's a very moving piece of music.

Presenter2:22

Bobby, you're now at the peak of your career, but let's go back to the very beginnings. You were born in a pit village in Durham, and your dad was a miner. What kind of family was it?

Bobby Robson2:31

Well, I would have to say it was a very happy family.

Bobby Robson2:33

I was one of five sons.

Bobby Robson2:35

I can remember vividly my young life going to school, playing football in the schoolyard, coming home, doing a bit of homework, playing football in the back streets, where I think probably it was, you know, the start of my career where I I suppose I learned to be a little bit technically adept'cause I played with a tennis ball and I played with a piece of coal, Michael. We used to play with a piece of coal sometimes. Have you ever tried trapping a piece of coal?

Bobby Robson2:59

And, you know, with the five brothers, playing in the back streets, playing in the back yard, I played cricket uh in the summer, football in the winter. That's all I did. I just specialized on the two sports, so I suppose I was

Presenter3:10

You know, not bad at either. Was it a poor family?

Bobby Robson3:13

Well, we didn't have any money to throw around. I mean, we never had a motor car, and I never had a bicycle.

Bobby Robson3:19

Dad did his best, obviously. I can remember holidays at Whitley Bay, which was the north eastern seaside part of of that world. Never got the weather, of course. So, you know, we learned how to what we call plodge in the sea.

Bobby Robson3:31

But they were good times, and uh I do recall them very, very nice, as I say.

Presenter3:34

What about football? Um you did did your father encourage it? Did he used to take you to football myself?

Bobby Robson3:38

Ah, yes, he did. I mean, I played schoolboy football, obviously, first of all, and then I played youth football, which is football under eighteen years of age. I played for the local village team, Langley Park Juniors. What a good side.

Bobby Robson3:48

In fact, we had a very good team, and one or two of those players actually went into professional football like myself.

Bobby Robson3:52

Dad was always there, Dad never missed a match, always travelled to see us play.

Bobby Robson3:56

He was mad at Newcastle United. I mean, he'll tell you about the nineteen thirty two FA Cup final between Newcastle and uh Arsenal,'cause he was there and he saw every ball, you know. And that was the famous or infamous cup final about was the ball o over the line? My dad will tell you all about it, you know. Was it over the line?

Presenter4:10

Live

Presenter4:13

Was it over the line?

Bobby Robson4:14

No way. He actually put the ball in the air, my father.

Presenter4:17

What kind of

Bobby Robson4:18

What kind of man was he?

Presenter4:20

He's a minor.

Bobby Robson4:20

Yes, he was a miner, hard as nails, worked very hard, worked fifty one years as a miner and with honour, Michael, missed one shift in all his working life, in fifty one working years. Isn't that fantastic? And the last forty two years of his life, he never missed one day's work.

Presenter4:36

Blah.

Bobby Robson4:36

I've still alive, eighty two, comes to Wembley for the international matches. But he was m as I said, mad at Newcastle United, used to take myself and my brothers to the games every two weeks on the bus from Langley to Newcastle, forty minute ride. We used to be at St James's by about twelve thirty every Saturday to make sure that we're Gody and got a good position. And Newcastle in those days certainly would have thirty five to forty-five thousand people.

Presenter4:59

Worth watching. Let's have another record, Bobby.

Bobby Robson5:02

Well, he's my favorite. I mean, I absolutely adore him. I can listen to him any time of the day and all day if you like. Francin Natra, and the piece of music that I would like very much is Try a Little Tenderness.

Speaker 45:14

She may be weary.

Speaker 45:18

Women do get weary.

Speaker 45:22

Wearing the same shabby dress

Speaker 45:30

And when she's weary

Speaker 45:35

Try a little tenderness

Presenter5:44

Bobby, even though sport obviously played a a huge part in your growing up, and I can see that the ambition wanted to get away, play football, you nonetheless went down the pit, didn't you? You followed your father down there when you left school. Yes. Did you want to?

Bobby Robson5:56

There was no other choice. I always wanted to be just a professional footballer, but I knew I couldn't be a professional footballer until I was seventeen. So I didn't have any great education, Michael. I didn't go to university. I actually went to, I suppose, the University of of Adversity, if you like.

Bobby Robson6:10

Because at fifteen I did leave school, and at fifteen I went to become an electrical engineer at the local quarry. I worked for two years down the coal mine, w went down every day. I was really biding my time. It was a stepping stone situation because I knew the first chance I would get, I would be away and I would take the opportunity.

Presenter6:26

When did the clubs come looking for you? What age were you then?

Bobby Robson6:29

Well, I was fifteen and a half then, just before my sixteenth birthday, so it was a question of hanging around for about a year and a half, which I did in the village, playing this junior football. And by the time I was seventeen and I was old enough to sign professional football forms, I had received several offers from several clubs. Why did you choose Fullon?

Bobby Robson6:47

Well, I like the manager. I think you sign for the manager. Sometimes I don't think you sign for the club. I think you sign for the person who runs the club. And he's a very genial man, very warm, very honest. His name was Bill Dodgin. Bill Dodgin Senior.

Presenter6:58

Who is he?

Bobby Robson7:01

And through Bill Dodgen C. Nose I met Bill Dodgen, Junior, and became quite good friends with him.

Bobby Robson7:06

It meant leaving home and Newcastle offered me terms. I could have gone to Newcastle as a professional and I was absolutely punked myself on Newcastle United. I mean Len Shackle and Albert Stubbins.

Bobby Robson7:17

uh Joe Harvey, they were my idols'cause my ambition was to play for Newcastle United. And yet for some reason I decided to go and leave it. Simply because I think at the time Newcastle were always buying big name players and the local boy never seemed to get a chance. And I was a local boy.

Bobby Robson7:32

He seemed to get bypassed. You know, they always wanted the stars to the team at Newcastle and some of the other bigger clubs. And I'm sure at the time they did have a youth policy, but the young player never seemed to get that chance. And I thought that's not for me. You know, I need to go to a club where I'm going to be given an opportunity, some good coaching, some good training, and when the chance comes, they're going to give it to me.

Presenter7:48

What was it like, this lad from Durham, in in London? Was it much of a shock?

Bobby Robson7:51

Yes. I mean, I was very homesick for a start.

Bobby Robson7:54

And we didn't have a telephone, so I couldn't bring home, and it was too expensive to get home by train, and cars were out of the question. I just had to stick it. I mean, I just uh gritted my teeth, rolled up my sleeves, and got stuck into it.

Presenter8:06

You're working at the same time, aren't you?

Bobby Robson8:06

The book

Bobby Robson8:07

Yes. Father insisted that I carried on with my profession. You know, he thought football was a dicey career, and it was, I suppose, and still is.

Bobby Robson8:14

So he wanted me to really safeguard my future and he insisted that I, in spite of leaving home, that I take up my previous profession. So I got a job for a a company from Victoria, Electrical Engineering Company, and I worked actually on the Festival of Britain side, you know, it was

Presenter8:30

I wide festival hall.

Bobby Robson8:31

I wired it, yes, that's right. I wired the Festival Hall. In fact, I went to see Sanato sing there not very long ago, and I looked at the building and I thought, My, well, I built this place.

Presenter8:41

Let's have another echo, Bobby.

Bobby Robson8:44

Well, in addition to Sonata, I mean, I love so many other vocalists of that of that style, if you like, and Mel Tomi has always been a great favourite of mine.

Bobby Robson8:52

Singing a beautiful song, a nightingale sang in Barclay Square.

Speaker 48:56

That certain night

Speaker 48:58

Or not

Speaker 49:02

There was magic abroad in the ear there were

Speaker 49:15

At the Ritz.

Speaker 49:18

And a nightingale sang

Speaker 49:23

In Berkeley

Presenter9:26

Well, we were talking now about the fifties and your first job as a professional footballer. What in fact was your first salary? Can you remember as a player?

Bobby Robson9:33

Yes, I can remember distinctly. It was actually seven pounds per week in the winter.

Bobby Robson9:38

And six pounds a week in the summer. Why they took the pound off you, I don't know. Of course, bread and milk cost just the same in the summer as it did in the winter, didn't it?

Presenter9:45

I mean, you've played a long and distinguished career, both Fulham and then with West Bromwich Albany. You played twenty times for England. What was the biggest wage you ever got as a player out of football?

Bobby Robson9:54

Well, I finished on a salary of forty five pounds a week.

Bobby Robson9:57

plus ten pounds for every appearance I made. So if I was in the first team, you know, it was fifty five pounds a week. I never played for any more than four pound bonus, win, lose, or draw, you know, that's what you got.

Bobby Robson10:09

Nowadays, as you know, they play for huge bonuses, handsome sums. But um I never play for any particular big club bonus. It was always a bonus which was laid down by the regulations of the Football League, which was four pounds to win, two pounds for a draw.

Bobby Robson10:22

And a good rollican from the mange if you're lost.

Presenter10:24

Do you think sometimes perhaps you were born too soon?

Bobby Robson10:27

Yes, I was in that respect, certainly.

Presenter10:28

Certainly.

Presenter10:30

No, because it's Fulham side that you joined in the fifties. Was it as much fun playing for that team as it was for us to watch it?

Bobby Robson10:36

It was unbelievably happy. It was the happiest times of my life, really. I mean, I've had a wonderful career and I've really been happy all that time since the the day I went into football until now. But those early years at Fulham were sublime. They were quite beautiful. I enjoyed training very much. I loved to train every day. I loved the matches. Somehow there wasn't perhaps the pressure on you to win the matches, and if you lost, you know, it wasn't the end of the world, which it appeared to be now. People accepted winning and losing, you know, in much the same way.

Presenter11:07

Do you think today that perhaps people have have lost that sense of balance about the game, that it is after all only a game, and winning is important, but it's not the most important thing?

Bobby Robson11:15

That's right, it's a sporting contest and on a good day you win and on a good day it's somebody else's turn. There are too many people in the game who actually don't know how to lose. I worked for a wonderful man, John Cobbold at Ipswich, for many, many years, and that was the one thing he taught me, you know, that it was a game to be enjoyed, to be loved, to be paid for.

Presenter11:22

Hmm.

Bobby Robson11:32

But there were days when it wasn't your turn, and you had to be just as good as a sportsman in defeat as you could be in de victory.

Presenter11:38

And the nice thing about John Cobbler, the chairman of Ipswich, was that he was renowned with the press that you had a big drink if they lost and an even bigger drink if they won. So it was no real difference, wasn't it? He was a wonderful man.

Bobby Robson11:46

He was a wonderful man. He was one of these guys, you know, if we won, he had a bottle of champagne, and if we lost, well, he had three.

Presenter11:53

And that was a significant

Bobby Robson11:53

That was a civilized way of of of looking at defeat, wasn't it?

Presenter11:56

Very much so. Let's have another record now, Bobby. In fact, a reminder, I think, of the day's attitude, wasn't it?

Bobby Robson12:02

There were days a little bit late at West Bromby's Arby, actually, but it's The Dance of the Swans from Swan Lake.

Bobby Robson12:07

By Tchaikovsky.

Presenter12:08

And why do you choose this record?

Bobby Robson12:09

Well, in fifty-seven, which is almost thirty years ago, I, as a member of West Bromojarin Football Club, went on tour to Russia. It was a very prestigious and very honourable tour. We embarked on three matches and we played the Central Club of the Russian Red Army in Moscow in the Lenham Stadium in front of about 100,000 people. We actually won 4-2. Terrific result. And the night before, we were forced to go to the Bolshevi Ballet in Russia. Can you imagine? Forced to go to there, and we didn't want to go. I suppose being young, 23, 24, Ballet was the last thing we thought about. And we were all very angry about having to go there, but the chairman insisted it was a diplomatic tour, so we went. Michael.

Bobby Robson12:49

At the end of the evening I was stunned, I was I was spellbound. I'd never seen anything so beautiful in all my life. I'll never forget the ballet, and I will never ever forget the music.

Presenter13:59

Our castaway today is Bobby Robson, the manager of England. Bobby, you went from Fulham to Westbrom. You played twenty times uh as a player for England. You came back to Fulham to end your playing career. Did you always, when you come toward the end of your career, did you see see a future in soccer after you finished as a player?

Bobby Robson14:15

Undoubtedly. I knew what I wanted to do, Michael.

Bobby Robson14:18

I wanted to stay in the game. I was besotted by it. Loved it very much.

Bobby Robson14:23

And I think I had some sort of coaching qualities. So I before I finished playing, I became qualified as an as a Football Association coach and got quite a lot of experience in as a coach while I still played. Now too many of our present players actually don't do that. They always wait till they finish and then decide what they're going to do and leave it too late, you see. I didn't do that. I knew I couldn't afford to. So when the day of reckoning came, it was obviously going to be in the coaching field that I was going to seek employment. Naturally I hoped eventually that I I would become a manager. That's you know the second rung on the ladder as it was, but first you needed some coaching experience which I got.

Presenter14:58

But when you did eventually become a manager, in fact quite quickly, it it was back at Fulham, wasn't it? That was your first uh job in in English management. It didn't last long at all.

Bobby Robson15:02

Yes, but

Bobby Robson15:06

No, it lasted about seven months. And three of those months were in the summer when we didn't play, so you could say I was most successful'cause I lasted four months, which is almost the record I would think.

Bobby Robson15:16

Well, th I think the usual situation where people do get impatient, they need success and they need it to morrow. I signed a three year contract.

Bobby Robson15:24

And they didn't fulfil the contract. Now, if the chairman at the time had said to me, or the board of directors at the time said, look,

Bobby Robson15:29

You know, you've got a job here and we'll give you seven months to work it all out out. I said, Well, you keep your job because it can't be done in seven months, particularly when three of the months were in the summer, as I say, when you don't even play football.

Bobby Robson15:38

So we got off to a moderate start in the second division. The club had been relegated the year before. I inherited that. My job was to get them back into the first division. By October I think we were about fourteenth in the league, with three quarters of the season yet to come.

Bobby Robson15:51

The directors probably felt that we should have been in the top four, and we weren't, and so I suffered. And so on a misty November morning I was summoned to the club and was dismissed.

Presenter16:00

Is it true that you learned that you were sacked by a newspaper, first of all?

Bobby Robson16:02

Yes, it was, yes. Which was unheard of at Fulham, I must say. I mean, that really

Bobby Robson16:06

made me most unhappy, and I was very bitter about it, and very sad. I was a bit disillusioned at the time, but there it is, that's the tough game it is sometimes.

Presenter16:13

In fact, your next job was the dough, wasn't it?

Bobby Robson16:16

Yes, I was a bit uh embarrassed about that. But when you haven't earned great money all your life and you are married and you've got three small children and a mortgage to pay, and I didn't do it immediately. Uh I was out of work for ten weeks, so I didn't bother for about the first six weeks I think. But then obviously money was running out and

Bobby Robson16:33

My wife said, Look, you've got to really sign on the door and do something about this, so I did.

Presenter16:37

How do you get back into soccer after that?

Bobby Robson16:40

Well, Bertie Mee, who was the Arsenal manager at the time, and Dave Sexton, who was manager of Chelsea, were a couple of good buddies of and friends of mine, and they kept me working. I used to go around doing a bit of scouting and a bit of match appraisal for both of them.

Bobby Robson16:54

And whenever a job came up, I applied. I had to. I couldn't just sit and wait for the phone to ring. I rang them.

Bobby Robson17:00

The Ifridge job came up. I did apply.

Bobby Robson17:04

I had a, I believe, a good recommendation from Bertie Mee and Dave Sexton, who put a kind word in for me. I had an interview. I was, I think, fourth in the list. Everybody dropped out in front of me because they didn't want to go to Ipswich. Frank O'Farrell, Billy Bingham were two of the people who I think were ahead of the queue of me.

Bobby Robson17:20

And they left the door wide open, and at the end of the day I had this marvellous chance of going to Ipswich without a contract, which I was obviously quite prepared to do.

Bobby Robson17:29

to show them what I could do, and I was very fortunate. I mean, it was j every cloud has a silver lining and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. At the end of the day, really getting the sack at Fulham, being on the dole and then getting the job at Ipswich,

Bobby Robson17:40

It was the turning point in my life.

Presenter17:42

Let's have another record, Bobby.

Bobby Robson17:45

Well, I'd like Neil Diamond's September Morn.

Speaker 417:52

Do you remember how we danced that night away?

Speaker 417:59

Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play

Speaker 418:06

September morning still can make me feel that way

Presenter18:18

Bobby, the term at Ipswich was to last fourteen years, fourteen very, very successful years. At that time Ipswich became one of the great English football clubs. Were the beginnings though there? Were they easy or were they difficult?

Bobby Robson18:30

No, they were very difficult.

Bobby Robson18:32

I went as a young manager. Having been sacked and just lasting seven months in my previous job, that wasn't too much of a pedigree to some of the players, so I knew it was going to be a tough time and there were some obstacles to jump over and some hurdles to clear.

Bobby Robson18:47

And you need two or three years to get the dressing room and the player content right within your club. You're gonna inherit obviously some good players, but obviously you're going to inherit some other ones. That's why the previous manager had lost his job anyway. When you take over, it's because something has failed to happen at the club. For some reason, it has been unsuccessful. That's why jobs come up. And there was a bit of a disruptive element within the dressing rooms at the club at the time, with some of the players, some of the senior players.

Bobby Robson19:13

And literally they had to be removed. It was a simply a case of getting them out before they got you out, and the quicker the better, and the tutor the sweeter. And to get your own players in.

Bobby Robson19:22

Now that takes time. You know, if you're going to develop youth policies and bring in young kids, that's a slow process because we didn't have money to simply go out. Chem never said, Well, here you are, Bobby, there's three million pounds. Now go out and buy six five hundred thousand pound players and form me a team. It wasn't the one of those scenes. It was going to be a slow job.

Presenter19:39

Is it true that uh you resorted to physical violence on one occasion to get your own wet the paper?

Bobby Robson19:44

Yes, it is. I mean, I'm not very proud of it. I mean, I'll try to avoid it at all costs. But I mean, there were some pretty petulant and difficult characters who misbehaved very badly and things like on one occasion we'd lost four, two to Leeds, you know, in a cup tie in a very hard contest and it was in the Don Revy day of Leeds with a marvellous team of Giles and Bremner and Jackie Child and Norman Hunter Reenie.

Bobby Robson20:07

and certain players who weren't in the team.

Bobby Robson20:09

you know, coming into dressing rooms and laughing and smiling all over the heads while the players who had performed, you know, and had played heroically for the club were pretty disappointed and a bit sad about losing, and suggesting we should open champagne and drink to the defeat and this sort of nonsense.

Presenter20:24

So what do you do?

Bobby Robson20:25

Oh, I slugged'em. I mean, it was just as simple as that. We just got involved in a bit of a fracker. They started it. I was never gonna ever be the first to punch, but I mean

Bobby Robson20:33

in front of your players, you want to do something about it. It was just one of these on the spot jobs with the coach and I getting involved in two senior players. It was rather sad and very I'm not to say I'm not proud of it at all, but it occurred and at the end of the day,

Bobby Robson20:45

I think sometimes you have to do that, you have to stand up and you've got to show people that you're not afraid of being in the trenches and it it worked wonders for us.

Presenter20:51

No, then you had this fourteen years. Very happy, very successful. I know for a fact you were offered the chance to live out the rest of your career there. I mean, John Cobbel wanted you to do that. Yet you swapped all that.

Presenter21:02

For the lion's den, really. I mean, you took on the job of manager of England. Why was that?

Bobby Robson21:07

Well, I didn't need a change. I must say that. I mean, sometimes you change jobs because you feel you've done as much as you can and you desperately need a change of environment. I wasn't like that. I mean, I wasn't uh dismotivated at Ipswich. The whole thing still

Bobby Robson21:20

appealed to me very much because I hadn't won the championship. My last two years as manager there we'd finished second on both occasions so so we'd just been pipped and I wanted desperately to win the the first division championship. We'd won the FA Cup which was marvellous. We'd won a European Cup which again was terrific. But you know the Blue Riband did not come our way and um and I would have loved to have won the championship as Alv did with Ipswich.

Bobby Robson21:43

But there was a time when

Bobby Robson21:46

you have to go maybe, you know. And I'd been there fourteen years and the offer was maybe too good to turn down. I think the only job only comes to you once in your lifetime. I think if you return it down it never comes again.

Bobby Robson21:56

It is the most prestigious job in my profession. It is the most important in spite of all the difficulties and the irritations and the way sometimes we prepare for international football, which quite frankly now and again is absolutely abysmal. But you've just got to get it right and y if you get it right for the country, it must be utopia. I mean Alf winning the World Cup for our country in nineteen sixty six, he must have felt absolutely wonderful. And I want to try and

Bobby Robson22:22

be similar to Elf. And it's the only chance you've got anyway by taking the job,'cause if you don't take the job you will never ever have that chance.

Presenter22:28

Well, as I say, I hope so with you in Mexico. Let's have a another record.

Bobby Robson22:33

From A Show On Your Toes, Rogers and Hart, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.

Presenter23:08

Orby, since you've become the manager of England, have you discovered that everyone, the public I'm not talking about, believes they can do the job better than you can?

Bobby Robson23:15

Oh, yes, indeed, and not afraid to tell me. You should see my mailbag. It's unbelievable the stuff that people uh write to me about. All picking wonderful England teams. And if I had to

Presenter23:23

Yeah.

Bobby Robson23:24

play everybody that's been suggested to me now, I would pick about fifty seven different England teams because everybody has their favorite.

Presenter23:30

Of course they do. It's a national pastime. What about the professional criticism though? What about the press? It's been alleged by the press that that you're sensitive to press criticism. Is that fair, do you think, of or

Bobby Robson23:39

No, I don't think it's fair. I don't think I'm too sensitive at all to to criticism. I can accept criticism when it's constructive. What I can't accept is criticism when it's abusive, and we've had too much abusive criticism in the press, and I think that's scandalous to football.

Presenter23:52

What about your family? Does it affect them adversely, do you think? This constant sort of scrutiny from from press and public?

Bobby Robson23:58

Well, I hope not, and I would like to think it didn't. But I know that my kids from time to time have had difficult times, you know,'cause other kids are cruel, aren't they?

Presenter24:06

Mm-hmm.

Bobby Robson24:06

And when father hasn't done too well at at a particular international football match, I think from time to time my young three lads have uh had a certain amount of stuff thrown at them, yes.

Presenter24:15

But they can look after themselves.

Bobby Robson24:16

Ah yeah They're great they're good. I'm very proud of them. They've done very well.

Bobby Robson24:20

And, um, they're proud of me. I mean, they know the job I've done and they know what I've been to football over the last thirty years, if you like.

Bobby Robson24:26

And that's all that matters at the end of the day, I think.

Presenter24:28

Is it the family do you think that it helps you keep a sense of proportion about the job you do?

Bobby Robson24:34

Well, they do help. It's nice to go back to a a sane and civilized home, isn't it, and have someone there waiting for you.

Bobby Robson24:41

And my dog's always pleased to see me, Mike. I mean, when Luzer draw, he always wags his tail. I mean, I think it's a good idea.

Presenter24:49

Let's sew another record, please, Bobby.

Bobby Robson24:51

Astrid Gilberto's A Girl from Ipanema

Speaker 424:54

Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ibanima goes walking and when she passes, each one she passes goes

Speaker 425:08

When she walks she's like a sombre that swings so cool and sways so gently That when she passes each one she passes goes

Presenter25:23

Bobby, you've got an added problem in in Mexico that uh New England managers had to face before, and that's that English soccer goes in there to the World Cup with its reputation sadly tarnished because of what happened at Brussels and things that have happened here in Britain. How conscious are you of that?

Bobby Robson25:40

I'm very conscious. Believe me, anybody following England this year in Mexico and misbehaving would cause havoc really with our plans. That would be a a mini disaster in many ways. I don't think they realize the damage and the dangers they cause to the team because we as players and staff obviously hate that sort of thing. I mean we were victims of this just a year ago when we were actually in Mexico.

Bobby Robson26:04

to play in the tournament against Mexico, Italy and West Germany when the Brussels disaster took place. And we were all tarred with the same brush. I mean, we were eight thousand miles away but were hated because of what happened in Brussels by our supporters.

Bobby Robson26:17

And at one time I did really think that the English national team I mean, our clubs have been banned, but at one time I did think that the English national team would be banned from international football. That would be the end of our game. And if these people are not very careful, I mean, that's the way we were heading.

Presenter26:32

As somebody's a lifetime in the game, starting off as you did at Fulham. I mean, as I say, I used to see you there, and you could stand on the terraces there at Fulham and have a really good game, you could stand there with your mum, your dad, your granny, and nobody got hurt.

Bobby Robson26:42

And

Presenter26:43

How much does it bother you how all this has changed over the years? Do you ever felt perhaps that sometimes you're in the wrong job?

Bobby Robson26:50

No, I wouldn't say that'cause I love the job and I wouldn't do anything else. But I just want the job to be right and I want the people who support and follow football to be just good people who know how to behave and are good members of society. Now, unfortunately society has changed and we have produced this terrible hooligan element.

Bobby Robson27:07

I mean I loathe them, I hate them, they do nothing for the game.

Bobby Robson27:11

And the quicker we rid that face from football, the better. But I think for the first time in football, I think the government have actually stepped in, and it's about time they did.

Presenter27:20

If England win, which we hope they do, will you retire?

Bobby Robson27:23

No, I won't.

Bobby Robson27:25

It would be a good point to retire on, wouldn't it? And how do you ever repeat a World Cup success?

Bobby Robson27:30

But I think I'm too young to retire, and I couldn't afford it anyway. I've got too much to learn and too much to give to the game, and I want to be part of it for a little bit longer, so

Bobby Robson27:40

No, I wouldn't retire. I would carefully think of what I should do.

Bobby Robson27:43

But I feel sure that I would work for a little bit longer.

Presenter27:46

Let's have the final record, Bobby, please.

Bobby Robson27:49

It could be appropriate, couldn't it? It's a song entitled I Dreamed a Dream by Patty Lubourne from that wonderful show Les Majoral.

Speaker 427:58

And still I dream he'll come to me That we will live the years together

Speaker 428:12

But there are dreams that cannot fail.

Speaker 428:18

And there are storms we cannot weather.

Presenter28:27

Oliver Robson, so now whether you like it or not, you're on the desert island. All right, now are you a practical man, self-sufficient? Could you look after yourself?

Bobby Robson28:33

And did I cook?

Presenter28:33

Indeed I could, yes. Would you try to escape, do you think?

Bobby Robson28:36

Not for a while. I think I'd enjoy it. I mean, when you spend Saturday afternoons with thirty thousand or a hundred thousand people, I mean, I think the solitude and the peace would be lovely.

Presenter28:43

What about one record? Suppose seven are swept away in a tidal wave, you're left with one, what would it be? Uh Uh

Bobby Robson28:48

Yeah.

Presenter28:48

Yeah.

Bobby Robson28:48

Arches.

Presenter28:49

Sonata. And what about the book? Not Shakespeare, not the Bible?

Bobby Robson28:52

The Bible I would take Roger's Thesaurus.

Bobby Robson28:56

It's a marvellous work of reference.

Bobby Robson29:00

I think you need to improve your vocabulary, don't you? All the time. I do. I mean, having taken on the job and having to write speeches and you need a a word for a word if you like. I think that would keep me going for two or three years, very happily. I would enjoy that.

Presenter29:11

What about the luxury object?

Bobby Robson29:13

Well, I don't know where you'll allow me a set of golf clubs, but I would take a set of golf clubs and obviously an endless supply of

Presenter29:17

Certainly not.

Bobby Robson29:20

Balls, if you wouldn't mind. But that

Presenter29:21

But that would satisfy me. That'd be wonderful. You'd drive them into the sea to your heart's content.

Bobby Robson29:25

and I would swim out and bring them back and believe they were pearls.

Presenter29:28

Bully Robson, many thanks and all the best in Mexico.

Bobby Robson29:31

Thank you very much indeed.

Speaker 329:39

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.