A tribute to Sir Bobby: Five of the best on anniversary of his passing

Robson got off to a great start, thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 8-0 in his first home match, and finished the campaign bettering the previous season’s final position. In later years, he propelled the club up the table, securing Champions League qualifying football in the process.

But it was in the UEFA Cup where he impressed most, leading the Magpies to the semis and quarter-finals in successive years, getting them agonisingly close to winning their first major trophy since the FA Cup in 1955.

Managerial legacy
Jose Mourinho, Pepe Guardiola, Andre Villas-Boas, Luis Enrique. What do these prominent managerial talents all have in common? They have all worked under Sir Bobby in some sort of capacity, and have all acknowledged their success is in part due to Robson.

Mourinho, who was famously a translator for Robson at Barcelona and Porto, once said: “I will keep with me always the Bobby Robson of every day, a person who had extraordinary passion for life and for football, with an extraordinary enthusiasm.

“Bobby Robson is one of those people who will never die, not just for what he did in his career but for everything that he gave to those who, like me, were lucky to know him and walk by his side.”

New Barca boss Enrique and current Bayern Munich manager Guardiola, meanwhile, both played under Robson in the Englishman’s one-year trophy-laden spell at the Nou Camp, and have spoken highly of him on numerous occasions.

Robson even helped former Chelsea, Tottenham and Porto head coach Villas-Boas take his first footsteps into management, by recruiting him as a teenager as one of his youth team’s coaching staff.

Bringing through stars
It was Robson who brought Brazilian great and former World Cup record scorer Ronaldo to Barcelona, and thus took him to new heights in 1996. The duo spent one year at the Nou Camp, before going their separate ways, but Ronaldo remembers his time with his former boss with great fondness.

“It makes me feel happy to hear how highly Sir Bobby talked about me because he’s a legend of football,” the Brazilian said. “I’m proud to have worked with him. He was an awesome coach and an awesome person. He was like a father to me.

“I have had a lot of managers in football but the difference between all of them and Sir Bobby was his humanity and the relationships he had with the players. He was always like a father to everyone.”

Other prominent players of the game that Robson has brought through or guided include Terry Butcher, George Burley and Alan Brazil at Ipswich. He is also credited in resurrecting the career of fellow Newcastle legend Alan Shearer.

It really is remarkable the legacy Robson has left to the sport of football, not only to England, but across the world. Loved, respected and forever remembered by all.