Ex-International turns down Manager's Job

[McNasty]

Just reading Bobby Robson's auto-biography and on page 61 he says that after playing for Fulham and England the first job he was offered was player-manager of Southend United. He declined our kind offer as he didn't want to continue playing --- he wanted to be a full-time manager and it didn't help that we didn't want to pay big wages , we offered him less money than he was earning at Fulham.

If he had taken the job in 1967 I wonder how our club would have fared. We will never know.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Just reading Bobby Robson's auto-biography and on page 61 he says that after playing for Fulham and England the first job he was offered was player-manager of Southend United. He declined our kind offer as he didn't want to continue playing --- he wanted to be a full-time manager and it didn't help that we didn't want to pay big wages , we offered him less money than he was earning at Fulham.

If he had taken the job in 1967 I wonder how our club would have fared. We will never know.

As good as Ipswich I reckon.
Plus we'd never had gone through the financial issues of 84/85 & so not had to sell half the South Bank.

Same sort of "what if" as when you think what could have happened if Jobson & Webb hadn't fallen out and if Fry hadn't been lured away by the "delights" of Karren Brady.

 

[WickfordShrimper]

Bloody Hell we would be a size of Ispwich Town today if he came our Manager

Southend United FC over 100 years have had no bloody Luck at all

Gutted !!

 

[canveyshrimper]

As good as Ipswich I reckon.
Plus we'd never had gone through the financial issues of 84/85 & so not had to sell half the South Bank.

Same sort of "what if" as when you think what could have happened if Jobson & Webb hadn't fallen out and if Fry hadn't been lured away by the "delights" of Karren Brady.

I'm not so sure as Robson was sacked from his first managerial job at Fulham, and it took him quite some time to get Ipswich moving in the right direction. IIRC Ipswich at the time had the Cobbold family at the helm and they were immensely supportive of their managers. Ramsey left only to take over the England job, and I think Robson's predecessor was Bill McGarry who only left to move to Wolves.

Therefore from an SUFC perspective it would have depended a lot on the support of the chairman.

 

[fbm]

If Ipswich weren't as small as us before he took over why should we have been as big as them if he had joined us instead?

 

[canveyshrimper]

If Ipswich weren't as small as us before he took over why should we have been as big as them if he had joined us instead?

Ipswich weren't "small", under Ramsey they had won Division 1 in 1961/62, and although relegated after Ramsey left were established in Division 2.

 

[Davros]

i'd say we would be right about where we are now... maybe we would have won one more trophy at one point along the way.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I'm not so sure as Robson was sacked from his first managerial job at Fulham,

Robson was most unfairly sacked from his job as manager of Fulham.He inherited a team from Vic Buckingham that was relegation bound and Fulham's best player at the time-Alan Clarke-was sold on to Leicester deal that landed Fulham with Frank Large (and cash)in exchange.There was no way that Fulham team was going to bounce back to the first division in one season which was the unrealistic expectation that BR was landed with at the time.
Incidentally, Robson was also shafted by Bar$elona.He'd agreed a two year deal and won the Spanish Cup and the Cup Winners Cup in his first season.However Bar$a finished second to Madrid that year and Bobby was moved upstairs for scouting duties in his second season.He was often to be seen on the golf course,walking along the prom or in some of the better restaurants in Sitges in that season!
Like Mac I've read the book and often pondered on the what might have been's if Robson had got the job with us.He was certainly some player-Johnny Haynes legs -even then and turned out to be one of the best English managers ever.

 

[Rob Noxious]

Rubin, Don't Take Your Love To Town...

I'm not so sure as Robson was sacked from his first managerial job at Fulham, and it took him quite some time to get Ipswich moving in the right direction. IIRC Ipswich at the time had the Cobbold family at the helm and they were immensely supportive of their managers. Ramsey left only to take over the England job, and I think Robson's predecessor was Bill McGarry who only left to move to Wolves.

Therefore from an SUFC perspective it would have depended a lot on the support of the chairman.

Your memory is pretty fine, H! This was the time when I first started watching The Blues and though I was just a kid, my memory was that we had a good, attacking side under Ernie Shepherd and then Arthur Rowley. We got promoted in '72 and as usual, the rot set in when we sold the star players - Garner and Taylor come to mind from the early '70s - and like recent years, it's a precarious precipice when we start doing well as we sell the players who've most made it happen. But the 'what if' question is tantalising, although ultimately pointless. :soapbox:

 

[fbm]

Ipswich weren't "small", under Ramsey they had won Division 1 in 1961/62, and although relegated after Ramsey left were established in Division 2.

Exactly... that's what I meant. I can't see why people think we would have been anything like them now had Robson had joined us instead because we were nothing like them when he turned us down.

 

[McNasty]

Exactly... that's what I meant. I can't see why people think we would have been anything like them now had Robson had joined us instead because we were nothing like them when he turned us down.

We will just never know unfortunately.

 

[Napster]

There was also a rumour about him and Vic being mates, and after the 1990 world cup we offered him a job. I think he preferred PSV though. Don't know why.

 

[Mick]

There was also a rumour about him and Vic being mates, and after the 1990 world cup we offered him a job. I think he preferred PSV though. Don't know why.

The thought of such a thoroughly decent man being mates with Vic Jobson simply beggars belief.