How fans can honour Sir Bobby.
Posted on August 2nd, 2009 | 17 Comments |
However the stories that have driven home for me what a special man he was have been the tales from Joe Public, people such as the courier who went to deliver a parcel to SBR’s home had the front door opened by the great man himself and was invited in for a coffee and a chat about football that lasted half an hour, the ex security guard from NUFC who standing outside in the pouring rain while the players and Sir Bobby arrived for training found, five minutes later, Sir Bobby outside giving him a brolley to ‘keep you dry son’ while Sir Bobby got soaked himself. The stories are endless but make you feel proud of him and the values he stood for. I feel immensely proud that this great colossus of a man was associated with and shared our love for this club.
Unfortunately, so many of those values were not always displayed to him, and especially I feel ashamed at the way he was treated by NUFC when he was shown the door by the previous board and also a section of our fans who wanted him out when the results weren’t going our way. Instead of having patience and faith that Sir Bobby would turn it around instead they took the easy option and clamoured for his dismissal. They know who they are and hopefully reading all the tributes about Sir Bobby will shame them into realising that not only were their knee-jerk actions ill judged but they also had a profound effect on the decline of our club. This should provide a lesson to all our fans for the future when we have a new manager and start the rebuilding process at St James Park.
This brings me on to his legacy. There have been discussions regarding renaming the East Stand, or building a statue to remember him by and both of those are very noble and honourable gestures. However, lets stop and think about the values he demonstrated consistently throughout his life and to truely honour his memory, we should adopt and demonstrate some of those values ourselves. He was known for getting the best out of players by making them feel ‘ten feet tall’. How many have commented over the past days that they would have run through brick walls for him due to the mutual respect they had for each other.
He believed in giving players time, and if they weren’t performing investing the time and effort into turning their performances around. He believed in humility, losing with grace and being magnanimous in victory. He believed in respect for the individual no matter who they were. The fans who get on the backs of our players after a couple of poor performances and cause a lack of player confidence which leads to a continued down turn in performance and ultimately them leaving the club only to perform better elsewhere, those fans should take a long hard look at themselves and ask, would the great man appreciate them behaving in that way or would he be appalled? If it’s appalled, stop doing it behave as he would. Bite your tongue and have faith that the player will come good if it’s a temporary dip in form.
Sir Bobby’s list of attributes are too lengthy to describe here but I believe we can all become better people if we follow some of the standards he has set and the manner in which he conducted himself.
I know it’s too much to ask for but that would be a better longer lasting tribute to Sir Bobby and as fans of this great club we need to help repair the damage that has been collectively inflicted on it and when he’s following the goings on at St James Park from ‘upstairs’ let’s make him proud of it again.
NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb
geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.
worky i agree we should be ashamed of ourselves the man deserved better from the people he and club he loved i dont think the people who booed ham had an effect on his sacking and i dont think it was through hatred of sir bobby either i just think thsoe fans were stupid enough not to realise how lucky we were
playing great football and winning(most of the time) and for any 1 interested there is a 3 hour long tribute to sir bobby on itv 4
ps what channel is the u-19s match on and at what time