Robson plans revival after ‘worst week’ in his life

BOBBY ROBSON is a frustrated man. The Newcastle boss woke yesterday morning with the memory of what he described as the “worst week” in his life still gnawing at his innards.

Coming from a man who has twice beaten cancer and lost a World Cup semi-final in agonising circumstances, that may sound a little over the top. But to anyone who has followed a career in professional football which now spans some 53 years, the sentiment is eminently believable.

Successive home defeats by Manchester United, Partizan Belgrade and Birmingham inside eight days left the 70-year-old down in the dumps and scratching his head. But that treble disappointment also once again stoked the fires which have fuelled his passion for the game for more than half a century, and he has already dug in for the long haul.

Robson's enthusiasm is almost a cliche, but had circumstances been different he lost many of his players on international duty immediately after Saturday's game he would have led his players out on to the training field yesterday morning, and for the next fortnight, and drilled them until they ironed out the problems which have hampered them so far this season.

"We haven't had any good through-balls, we haven't got anybody in on the end of a through-ball, we haven't got into wide positions, we haven't got good quality balls in," he said. "We've just lost some penetration in our play and we've lost getting behind people. We know what we've lost and we're trying to do something about it. But there's no criticism from me. The players have given everything. But that's a tough week we've had and we can't moan about it and can't crib about it. We've got one point from nine and we have to realise that."

The current situation is as close as United have come to crisis since the early days of the Robson reign when relegation to the First Division was a genuine possibility.

There have even been mutterings about the manager's age a factor which has barely been mentioned since he took over from Ruud Gullit in September 1999 and proved immediately that he still had plenty of youthful verve. Robson met chairman Freddy Shepherd to discuss strategy, but his own future was not on the agenda. Instead, the pair discussed the way back from what they believe is merely a blip if a costly one in Champions League terms in their long-term blueprint for success.

If the current situation is a crisis Robson himself described it as a dogfight it is one of mercifully few low points during his tenure.

He spent his first season at St James' avoiding relegation and his second coping with a crippling injury crisis which made mid-table mediocrity relative success. But for the last two years, the Geordie public have been treated to an exhilarating brand of attacking football which has seen them finish fourth and then third in the Premiership. It is by those standards, rather than the less demanding expectations which once represented their horizons, by which United are currently being judged.