Now is the time to honour Sir Bobby.

Posted on May 12th, 2010 | 69 Comments |

Robson: Legend
Robson: Legend
Before the season started we found ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to say goodbye to one of our greatest managers and one of the games all time greats, Sir Bobby Robson, who sadly lost his battle with Cancer back in July.

The entire football world paid tribute to the man that had such an effect on the lives of so many, even people that never had the opportunity to meet him. It’s been an honour and a privilege to have him manage the team he supported as a boy. Whilst Bobby would rather have seen us challenging at the top of the Premier League rather than the second tier of English football, he would have remained equally as proud of this current team that had just spent the entire season defying critics and winning the title at a canter. Not much has been done by way of a permanent reminder of just what this man meant, not only to Geordies and fans of Newcastle United, but to England fans, Barcelona fans, PSV fans, in fact football fans all over the world. I think the time has come for that to change.

It’s been a tremendous season for Newcastle as we marched on towards the Championship trophy, whilst finishing a full 23 points clear of the play-off malarkey. In short we could have stopped playing in March and still gained promotion. Current manager Chris Hughton has taken inspiration from the great man to lead us into such a strong position on the field. Hughton has said that you can’t help feeling Bobby’s presence around around the place, in fact he even has a picture of Bobby on the wall in his office. A former Newcastle manager inspring a current Newcastle manager. Wor Bobby would have liked that.

As we are fully aware, the club have been on somewhat of a charm offensive and have lavished us with some communication in the last few days. Granted it was poorly executed, but the thought was there. What would gain favour with a lot more fans though is a tribute to the man that is held in such high regard around the area. I mean a lasting tribute, not just opening the ground up for a day a year to mourn the passing of a legend.

How about a statue outside the ground? Ipswich already have one, but there is nothing to stop us having one barring some obscure local planning issue. Or how about dedicating a stand to Bobby Robson? We have the Sir John Hall stand, which was renamed purely for egotistical reasons at the time, so surely the club can dedicate The East Stand or The Leazes End to a legend within the game and to a man that has done so much for our club?

Either way, I would like to see something in way of recognition of Bobby Robson. Perhaps it was fitting that the season we lost him was also a season that saw us play against two of his former clubs in West Brom and especially Ipswich, who will always remember him with great affection after what he achieved as manager at Portman Road. Ipswich have a lasting tribute to a legend, now it’s our turn.

R.I.P Bobby.

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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69 Responses

  1. I couldn’t agree more. This is an absolute no brainer for me and one which MA should listen to.

  2. both ideas would be even better :-) wor bobby deserves that, a great man that will never be forgotten

  3. more than fitting! and never more deserved to a great servant to football, it would need to be the east Stand for me – so its clearly visible to all the cameras from the Milburn stand – come on Ashley – do this one thing for the great man!

  4. If it is what the fans want it will never happen. Perhaps we should be saying we dont want anything then MA will do something

  5. I agree there should be some kind of tribute but don’t forget there’s no visible tribute to managers that actually won something at the club.

    Maybe a suite named after him? But probably not a statue.

    What does joe Harvey have? Seymour?

  6. there should be some kind of tribute done,but carnt see ashley doing out,he canned the statue for shearer didnt he..

  7. How about The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation @ SJP with a donation from the club for useing his name?

  8. we could get that put on the new strip sleave noir9,that would be a nice touch

  9. How about throwing a big gala dinner at SJP and have Fat Freddy’s heed with an apple in his geb as the centre piece?

  10. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 8:45 am

    “I agree there should be some kind of tribute but don’t forget there’s no visible tribute to managers that actually won something at the club.

    Maybe a suite named after him? But probably not a statue.

    What does joe Harvey have? Seymour?”

    I totally agree, Stuart. Sir Bobby was a great man, but Harvey and Seymour put most of their lives into Newcastle United and won the trophies, Bobby didn’t.

  11. a gesture of some description should be made; all of the suggestions are realistic and worthy of the legend.
    a stand or suite, surely the east stand is due a facelift that would be my choice

  12. I see what you’s are saying about Harvey and Seymour, but I feel if something was going to be done to honour them it should have been done long ago.

    I mean no offence by thiis but I would guess that Bobby means a lot more to a lot more right now, and so now would be the perfect time to recognise the special impact he had on our lives in the North East.

    I’m still not for a second saying we should forget about other greats though.

  13. @DevonMag: Toonsy doesn’t want both of them to be in the squad. ;)

    So no article for Colo creamy. :lol:

  14. Toon Chicken says:
    May 12, 2010 at 11:23 am

    “I mean no offence by thiis but I would guess that Bobby means a lot more to a lot more right now”

    Harvey and Seymour Snr will always mean more to Newcastle United than Bobby Robson.

  15. I think Sir Bobby’s achievements go well beyond trophies.

    This is a good opportunity for Ashley to do the right thing without spending a lot of wad, and show that he’s of the same mind as the fans on at least something. The academy suggestion is a good one, but why not a stand? (Probably because he wants to sell the rights)

  16. workyticket says:
    May 12, 2010 at 11:34 am

    They do to the club Worky., but to the fans?

    SBR probably means more to the supporters personally than the others mentioned.

    Is the naming of a stand or a statue erection more to appease fans or to reconise the contribution of the individual to the club?

    Differing opinions on that I guess.

  17. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    “Is the naming of a stand or a statue erection more to appease fans or to reconise the contribution of the individual to the club?”

    That’s a VERY good question, Stuart. What are you on today? :-)

    Personally I think it should be to recognise the contribution of the individual to the club. That is what it is supposed to be about anyway. Newcastle should see it’s history in a broader perspective than the last five minutes, because that is just fickle.

  18. Hitman, Stuart

    If Hughton were keen to bring 18 yr old Wilshire in, an interesting point would arise were he to be promised first team football.

    Given Wilshire’s age, I wonder if Vukick and the other four graduates from the Academy will be given a similar guarantee?

    If not, then that raises a question about our attitude to younguns, their ability and thus, the Academy.

  19. Do we ‘really’ want to develop other club’s bairns for them?

    We should put ALL of our legends up around the ground.

  20. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    May 12, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    So you’re fundamentally opposed to the loan system then?

  21. No,
    I woulda said i was fundamentally against the loan system.

    I’m against long loans developing other clubs kids.

    Short loans to cover against injury, a la van aarnholt.
    Or older players as cover.

  22. Jesus christ, that Luke Edwards isn’t half going to town on our ‘bleak’ financial situation.

    If he doesn’t shut up he will end up on ‘the list’ :twisted:

  23. toonsy says:
    May 12, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    When there’s that much ambiguity in the club statements it’s an open goal for the press to speculate – That’s their job.

    He’s only speculated the same as we have been on here over the last few days.

    The evidence is starting to get pretty overwhelming on the negative side of the statement.

    They clear up a point that nobody has mentioned yet fail to clear up the single most important point to supporters.

    Wonder why…

    I lose respect for these clowns every time they speak!

  24. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    “The evidence is starting to get pretty overwhelming on the negative side of the statement.”

    What is the “evidence”, Stuart. Enlighten us.

  25. Looks like Worky had the same idea for an article as me. Crack on boss, I have my eyes on something else which need some research doing ;)

  26. Would prefer a pre season tournament i.e the Bobby Robson cup – featuring PSV, Barca, Porto and ourselves of course

    Shouldnt be that hard to sort out if the will is there

  27. workyticket says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    1, They made mention of ‘our brilliantly talented’ youth

    2, They have said the current squad will form the base of the squad next year.

    3, Hughton has gone from saying he wants 3 to 4 players retreating to we don’t need much in.

    4, They have clarified an issue that nobody in the press was speculating on ie Ashley taking his money back. Don’t forget that they made this statement in response to ‘media speculation’ that wasn’t even speculated on.

    5, By far the most speculated part of the statement was regarding the ‘Capital outlay’. Why do they not feel the need to clarify that point, given that it has caused so much speculation and mis-interpetation?

    My view is that releasing a statement saying Ashley wasn’t taking money out is a positive – Releasing a statement to clarify ‘Capital outlay’ would be a negative because it means NO money will be spent!

    I’m aghast at your refusal to accept that it could mean there’ll be no money spent, instead of spouting this guff about ‘over a period of more than one year’ ect.

    Nobody in the economic world has managed to make head nor tail of this statement and what it ACTUALLY MEANS – Why are you so confident?

    So the facts are that their avoiding the main points, the points that need clarity – That’s negative in my opinion.

  28. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    “So the facts are that their avoiding the main points, the points that need clarity – That’s negative in my opinion.”

    There’s nothing to avoid, Stuart. If people like yourself attempt to read between the lines of the statement, that can’t be avoided. But for the club to spend it’s time constantly clarifying and reclarifying statements every time an aggressive media tries to read something into a statement that simply isn’t there, that would simply invite more speculation on the clarifications and so on. The tail would be wagging the dog, and the press would have exactly what they wanted, their crazy little soap opera called “Newcastle United”. It frankly stupefies me that some fans are so eager to help the media in undermining the club.

  29. i like that idea steve @33 shouldn’t ipswich be invovled too though? at the very least so we can leave the tournament with one win ;)

  30. I admired SBR and his achievements in the game. I also admired him for the gentleman that he clearly was. And I guess, like many other United fans, I’ve stood beside the statue at Portman Road and waved for the camera.
    However……the statue at Ipswich commemorates a lengthy spell as their manager with silverware thrown in. From a United perspective, SBRs major achievements in the game weren’t with us.
    I would have no grumble with a statue to SBR at fatboy@stjames’ but it would then surely mean that one to Joe Harvey should be erected at the same time? Joe won silverware as both a player and a manager with NUFC and he lived and breathed the club….

  31. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    the statement seems a bit clearer to me stuart, think u should read it again.

    there will be no more buys on the never-never and no more hand-outs from ashley. think this is what they were meaning by “no new capital outlay”. ashley has stated he won’t be taking any money out of the club to repay his interest free loan therefore all money generated by the club will be spent on the academy, player puchases, paying off the 20 million overdraft and any other costs. basically the club must be able to finance itself in future.

    i think the statement was maybe intended as a positive for the future of NUFC, a positive for the fans and a negative for the press. just we got it all mixed up as it was left open to interpretation. it could’ve and should’ve been handled better…….typical ashley…

    but really, the time to judge them is when the transfer window shuts. if we’ve sold key players and haven’t strengthened the squad then is the time to worry. until then it’s all tittle-tattle.

  32. UTD111 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:47 pm

    agree, well put………there is the sir bobby robson suite at st. james’ with a bust of him outside. and a very nice suite it is also.

  33. I`ve had it with “THE STATEMENT” let it die the death it deserves and we can still live in hope (and probably die in despair)

    In Yankee Stadium, which is of course in NY there`s an area monument park) next to the “bull pen”(where pitchers warm up)
    In that area are plaques, busts (no not those kinda busts) etc. dedicated to the great players and managers of the past.

    Why not create something similar at St. James Park, I am sure there`s an appropriate area where something similar could be displayed to honor the great servants to the club from the past.

    Sherar`s bar would also be a good place to display photo`s with a brief description of each player, plus old team photos etc. give a sense of the clubs history.
    Doncha think !

  34. afternoon lads, stevep – good idea about the SBR tournament, sounds good 2 me.
    utd111, a little conententious, but very valid point.
    its a pity the club couldnt be as articulate as most comments u get on this blog.
    off topic, i hope fulham win tonight, nd Bpool in final eh lol. glad collo has been included in squad, he deserves his chance :)

  35. malchick says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    “there will be no more buys on the never-never and no more hand-outs from ashley. think this is what they were meaning by “no new capital outlay”. ashley has stated he won’t be taking any money out of the club to repay his interest free loan therefore all money generated by the club will be spent on the academy, player puchases, paying off the 20 million overdraft and any other costs. basically the club must be able to finance itself in future. ”.

    Thankyou, Alex Delarge. That’s a very good way of putting it. Viddy well, Stuart!

  36. workyticket says:
    May 12, 2010 at 2:35 pm

    Greater economic minds than yours or mine have not been able to establish what they actually mean.

    I’ve seen the Bedi guy from an investment company on SSN saying it’s not entirely clear what they mean. I would have thought he might have a clearer idea than you, me or anyone else.

    The fact that people are still debating this shows it’s unclear.

    Your argument about the tail wagging the dog is irelevant as the club have already set a precedent by replying to press speculation (that wasn’t even being speculated by the way).

    Any idea why they did that, and not clear up the point that has actually caused press speculation?

    Like I said it could just be possible that if they came out and clarified what they meant it could well be that they DO mean there’ll be no money – It could mean as you say, but I get the impression if that was the case they would have come out and said something.

    I don’t expect you to see it that way as you think you’re absolutely right.

  37. Chuck says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    “Why not create something similar at St. James Park, I am sure there`s an appropriate area where something similar could be displayed to honor the great servants to the club from the past.

    Sherar`s bar would also be a good place to display photo`s with a brief description of each player, plus old team photos etc. give a sense of the clubs history.
    Doncha think !”

    Of course.

    Newcastle United have been absolutely useless with that sort of thing since way back in comparison to similar clubs. That’s why many fans who aren’t old enough to remember are so ignorant when it comes to the history of the club.

  38. malchick says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    “there will be no more buys on the never-never and no more hand-outs from ashley. think this is what they were meaning by “no new capital outlay”.

    You’ve just hit the nail on the head – You said THINK this is what they mean?

  39. have not said much on this statement,except to say i was in the “huff”,but after a good chat with j/d,i look at in the old way;why take painkillers before you have a any pain no point eh,or as monty/p said always look on bright side of life,do do—

  40. I see Villa are happy to sell Curtis Davies, Sidwell, Shorey, Reo-Coker and Beye.

    I wsould take Davies – He’s a good age and quite a good player.

    Depends how much they want and what his wages are.

    Hopefully Villa will pay us to take him and we could get a local charity to pay his wages.

  41. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    “Greater economic minds than yours or mine have not been able to establish what they actually mean.

    I’ve seen the Bedi guy from an investment company on SSN saying it’s not entirely clear what they mean. I would have thought he might have a clearer idea than you, me or anyone else.”

    You’re obviously a great expert on him and his career, Stuart, and you’ll know that his longstanding part time job as a Newcastle United rent-a-gob wouldn’t last too much longer if he didn’t give his employers exactly what they wanted to hear.

    Who are the other “great economic minds” BTW, Stuart?

  42. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    “You’ve just hit the nail on the head – You said THINK this is what they mean?”

    True, i can’t say for definite. It’s just my interpretaion. But neither can you say for definite that it means we won’t be buying any players. So until we know for definite i.e. when the window shuts, why not just take the positive view and be happy.

  43. The statement will be unclear to the majority of fans, therefore would it hurt to clarify it?

  44. workyticket says:
    May 12, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    I’ve got to admit I’m struggling to have a debate with someone as cynical as you about everything in the media.

    Whatever anybody says are all lies according you.

    Grow up.

  45. worky from your comments i can see you have become just as arrogant and big headed as stardust,you should ban your self

  46. toonsy says:
    May 12, 2010 at 4:00 pm
    icedog – I’m writing something right now that touches on your point

    ________________________________________________

    I say! steady on Toonsy, you can’t just go around touching people’s points….

  47. imo curtis davies was one of o”neil bad buys to me hes a duck-egg,got lot better players at toon than him

  48. hitman says:
    May 12, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    It might be that we don’t have the luxury of not pushing them too far.

  49. UTD111 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    “I say! steady on Toonsy, you can’t just go around touching people’s points….”

    Steady on old bean ;)

  50. Stuart79 says:
    May 12, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    “Kings better than him anyway.”

    King and Terry are about equal in my opinion, if King remains fit. Ferdinand is the weak link.

  51. CHUCK right on m8,we winge if we dont get one we winge when we do get one,can we just say the club just no idea when it comes to PR,as they have proved from day one,we just have to put up with (for now)

  52. the statement was posted on the official website for the fans to read – but according to some the majority of the – geordie nation – are not sharpest of tools in the box & are misinterpreting it ????…SO WHY CARN’T THE W@NKERS JUST CLARIFY WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO TELL US.

    AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG !!!!!!

    & another thing – i was disapointed i didn’t make the 30 man squad ahead of hesky.

  53. Soh ! just pretend there never was a statement and put yourself in Chris`s shoes with dosh to spend and each one of us know`s much better than anyone who to bring in this summer, right !
    So who`s it gonna be ?
    Forget about Ireland, looks like either of the two top sides will be in for him.
    Then there`s O`Hara, wants first team football or out ?
    Citeh are about to unload,
    Bellemy, love to have him back.
    Onuoha & Micah Richards, would give us a solid back line for the future but may prove expensive, but what the hell we are the 20th. richest club in the world.
    Roque Santa Cruz, might revive his career with us.
    Curtis Davis from Villa, might be a good buy, fits the requirement`s.
    Wright Phillips seems to have lost a step and gets bullied a bit, dont think so .
    Would love to have Sissoko, but would he come, only for the right dosh, actually that applies to all of them, but we can dream i suppose.

  54. FFS leave the statement alone – everybody’s speculating and whingeing that they can’t get answers. Will you ever?

    Be practical and stop tying yourselves in knots – let it go otherwise you’ll end up obsessed about it. Do yourselve a favour and let go, let those who are paid to speculate speculate, let those that are paid to worry worry.

  55. Chuck – you’ve hit the nail right on the head.

    Why buy big, why buy at all when good experienced players can be picked up for nowt or next to nowt and paid for out of the REVENUE accounts – NOT Cap spend.

    Geddit everybody?

  56. I`ve hit the nail on the head ?
    Sorry Lesh thats as confusing to me as “THE STATEMENT” and no I dont gedit, but then I`m a bit slow on the uptake as you might have guessed.