Ridsdale: Robson was England's first choice

Peter Ridsdale revealed Bobby Robson was the Football Association's first choice to take over from Kevin Keegan as England manager.

Keegan quit after England lost 1-0 to Germany in October 2000 - FA committee member and Leeds chairman Ridsdale says Newcastle boss Robson's name was at the top of the list to replace him.

But after the Magpies warned that Robson was unavailable, the FA turned to Sven-Goran Eriksson, who led England to a 5-1 victory in Germany and to automatic qualification for the World Cup.

"Everybody agreed that the ideal was an Englishman with another young Englishman backing him up," The Sun reports Ridsdale said in a biography of Eriksson.

"We had Bobby Robson and Peter Taylor as manager and heir apparent. There was a long debate about whether Terry Venables should be considered and everybody agreed that if New England was to represent what the FA wanted it to stand for, we couldn't discount Terry's non-footballing reputation," the paper quotes.

Obviously the best choice ..... and well done Freddy & co for telling them to get lost.....

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Answers

So when is the next honours list drawn up?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002