Fergie Mourns The Passing Of A Great Friend

I was on a train on my way to Munich airport when I got a text informing me of the news about Sir Bobby Robson. He was a football man, spending his playing career at Fulham and West Brom, before making a name for himself from managing. He took on the England job, managed Barcelona, Newcastle, PSV and Porto, amongst others.

Sir Alex Ferguson is amongst the people who have paid tribute to Robson.

“I was never too big or proud to ask him for advice which he gave freely and unconditionally,” Ferguson said. “And I’m sure I am speaking for a lot of people when I say that. In my 23 years working in England there is not a person I would put an inch above Bobby Robson. I mourn the passing of a great friend; a wonderful individual; a tremendous football man and somebody with passion and knowledge of the game that was unsurpassed. His character was hewn out of the coal face; developed by the Durham County mining background that he came from. His parents instilled in him the discipline and standards which forged the character of a genuinely colossal human being. He added his own qualities to that which then he passed on to his sons. The strength and courage he showed over the past couple of years when battling against his fifth bout of cancer was indescribable. Always a smile; always a friendly word with never a mention of his own problems. The world, not just the football world, will miss him. Let’s hope it won’t be long before another like him turns up because we could never get enough of them.”