'Uncle Bobby Is My Manager Of The Year'

There can only be one real candidate for manager of the season: Bobby Robson.

He has worked wonders at Newcastle this season and done it with the sort of enthusiasm and attitude that I would like to bottle. It's brilliant to see and I hope that I still have the same love of football when I am that age.

At the start of the season you could have asked the whole country who would be the Premiership's top five and 90% of people would have said the same five clubs - and it didn't take a genius to work out who they would be.

Hardly anybody would have predicted that Newcastle would have split up the so-called 'Big Five', never mind challenged so well and for so long for the title.

It's impossible to exaggerate what Bobby has achieved in two years - Newcastle were bottom of the league when he took over and look where they are now. And a lot of that is simply down to great management.

He's made some great signings. Craig Bellamy has proved to be an inspirational choice. We all thought he was poor at Coventry but you forget how young he is, Bobby saw the potential rather than judging him on his last season. And Laurent Robert has come in and had a good season and offered something different.

Add in a good goalkeeper in Shay Given and a resurgent Alan Shearer and they have certainly impressed the neutral and ruffled a few feathers in a championship race that so often fails to surprise.

Everyone loves Bobby. It's because you can see how much he cares. The sparkle in his eyes and his obvious love of the game are quite fantastic to see.

And the thing the fans like is that he cares what they think. He knows that they are the most important people in the game because he is one himself.

The test for him will come next season. It's like the 'difficult second album'. Once you achieve great things, the fans will not be happy unless you match or better yourself next time.

Ipswich Town are a case in point. This time last year, I was touting George Burley as my star manager. Twelve months on, it looks very much like they will be in Division One next season.

Ipswich over-achieved last season, mixing it with the big boys and qualifying for Europe. But as is so often the case, they could not reproduce that sort of form.

I can see them making a good case for promotion back to the Premiership next season though, and it's the same with Derby County.

Changes will have to be made, particularly at Derby, but I think that both have very good managers and they well make light work of the first division.

Leicester? Who knows? They could just disappear.

Aside from Bobby Robson, the Premiership managers who have impressed me have been Phil Thompson and Sam Allardyce.

Thommo did a brilliant job for Liverpool during Gerard Houllier's absence. It was a tough, tough job and a lot of people doubted that he could do it. But he took over and then handed back the reins with the club still in a fantastic position.

It certainly vindicated Liverpool's decision to give Thommo a chance when they could easily have panicked and brought in someone like Kenny Dalglish as a short-term measure. Instead, they chose a man who was unproven but singing from the same hymn sheet as the manager. This time it worked.

And big Sam has done a good job at Bolton. They were ripe for going down and I thought it would happen all along. I loved his attitude when they were top of the league - he knew they weren't going to stay there and only talked about staying in the Premiership.

Like Bobby Robson, Sam clearly loves the game and cares about his club and its future.

To my mind, that's what separates a good manager from a great manager.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Answers

Andy Praises Bobby

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Who wrote that, then?

That reads like YBR himself's in the byline .

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Has to be Andy Townsend. Everybody knows his knowledge of the game and shrewdness are second to about 3000 other pundits. :-{E}

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Garth Crooks, it has to be.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

It has to be a joke, no pundit could write anything so close to the truth.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Sorry, wasn`t meant to be a guessing game, I just missed a line off.... It was Andy Gray.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Andy Gray

Top bloke.....if anyone knows more about football than AG I havent heard them yet

Always relentless in his praise of true class (especially Shearer) where others allow their (barely hidden) biases to creep through

Hansen, Lawro and especially Alan feckin Green

Did you hear that Andy Gray has been 'signed' for radio 5 live for the world cup....apparently thon fat irish, liverpuke-biased tw@t Alan Green has spat the dummy out at this as he cant stand the competition

Apparently Greeny and Andy Gray hate eachother so that should be interesting come June

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Keegan!!!! Keegan!!! Keegan!!!!

(guffaw!)

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

If it comes to a scrap, my money's on the Jock.

I'm actually suprised that piece is by Andy Gray, 'cos as far as I can work out he doesn't like us. Perhaps I'm biased from his commentary during the 5-0 over Man U.

He certainly knows his onions, but I prefer Mick Martin on Metro.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

I think Andy Gray is the best pundit around. He also has a good "media style" which comes across well. In all honesty Bobby, I think he's pretty fair when it comes to his assessments of Toon.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Sparxx............LOL :>))

Watch out for Clarky !

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Sparxx, for once we can agree about Keegan - much as I love the man he`s a dreadful pundit!

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Gray is a top bloke, always honest and has a sound tactial mind, I value his opinion, unlike certain others, especially those with moustaches.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2002

Has anyone read his book? 'Flat back four' or something on his views on the tactical game. I was thinking of getting it but obviously if it's a load of Lawrenson I'll think again...

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

That was one of the first footy books I bought after becoming obsessed with the game, but still unfamiliar with tactics. From that perspective, I found it a good read.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002