Challenges The Sir Bobby Robson Challenge

[geordiekrispy]

The Sir Bobby Robson Challenge

 

After watching the Sir Bobby Robson documentary (More than a manager) on Netflix, I was inspired to try and come up with a challenge to attempt to replicate the managerial career of probably one of the best, if not the best English managers of recent times.

 

A little (a lot sorry) bit of background info for those that don't know him that well:

Spoiler

Early club management

Robson made his debut as a manager in January 1968 at his former club Fulham, but this is not where I feel we should start the challenge.

He moved on to Ipswich Town in 1969 and it was there that he established his reputation as a successful manager.  After four mediocre seasons, Robson led Ipswich to fourth place in the First Division and success in the Texaco Cup in the 1972–73 season. In the following nine seasons, Ipswich finished lower than sixth place in the First Division only once, in the 1977–78 season. However, that season was a success with a 1–0 victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup final. His reign at Ipswich lasted 13 years, during which time the club twice finished as League runners-up, and made regular appearances in European competitions, capturing the UEFA Cup in 1981 with a 5–4 aggregate victory over Dutch side AZ 67 Alkmaar. During his 13-year tenure, he brought in only 14 players from other clubs, most notably Allan Hunter, Bryan Hamilton and Paul Mariner, relying instead on players developed through Ipswich's youth programmes, including Terry Butcher, George Burley, John Wark, Mick Mills, Colin Viljoen, Alan Brazil, Trevor Whymark, Brian Talbot, Kevin Beattie and Eric Gates, who all went on to play international football. His imports included Dutch players Frans Thijssen and Arnold Mühren. Robson was not a tactical genius but he showed a talent for developing new players, with his good interpersonal skills, caring attitude, hard work and enthusiasm helping them to achieve their best.

England manager

Robson's achievements with Ipswich earned him a job offer from the Football Association for the position of national coach. On 7 July 1982, two days after England were knocked out of the 1982 World Cup, he succeeded Ron Greenwood as coach of the England national team.

Robson's first match in charge saw immediate controversy, as he dropped Kevin Keegan for the match against Denmark. On 21 September 1983, Robson suffered his only loss in the 28 qualifying matches he was to undertake as England manager. The defeat, again to Denmark, ultimately led to England's failure to qualify for the 1984 European Championships he then went on to lead the England team to qualify for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

England were defeated in the last eight by Argentina with a brace of goals from Diego Maradona, the infamous "Hand of God" goal and the "Goal of the Century" he scored five minutes later. Robson was unimpressed by Maradona's claim of divine intervention:

Robson's England dropped only one point in qualifying for Euro 1988, which included an 8–0 victory over Turkey. However, this was followed by failure at the tournament itself, held in West Germany, where England were eliminated in the group stage. They finished bottom of their group, succumbing to defeats against the Republic of Ireland, the eventual winners, the Netherlands, and the eventual runners-up, the Soviet Union.

Robson led England without conceding a goal through the six-match qualification for the 1990 World Cup where they were one of six seeded teams. Again, they were placed in a group with the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, with Egypt the fourth side. England topped their qualifying group, accumulating four points from their three matches. 

This was followed by victories over Belgium and Cameroon in the knock-out stages, to set up a semi-final with West Germany. England lost the match on a penalty shoot-out, after the score had been tied at 1–1 following extra time. Robson was the second coach, after Alf Ramsey, to take England to a World Cup semi-final, and the first coach to do so on foreign soil, an achievement not equalled until Gareth Southgate's team reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.

Continental management

Before the 1990 World Cup, the FA told Robson it would not renew his contract as England manager, so he moved on to the Netherlands to coach PSV Eindhoven, succeeding manager Guus Hiddink, who had left the team after leading them to the 1987–88 European Cup victory and four consecutive Eredivisie titles.

Robson inspired PSV to win the Eredivisie in both the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons. However, the team did not make the progress expected by the board in European competitions and Robson was informed he would be leaving the club at the end of the 1991–92 season.

Robson moved to Sporting CP in July 1992, where his Portuguese interpreter was a young José Mourinho, future Porto, Chelsea, Internazionale, Real Madrid and Manchester United manager. Robson guided the club to a third-place finish in his first season in charge.  Despite this Robson was sacked in December 1993 with the club sitting at the top of the league table.

Sporting CP's rivals Porto quickly hired Robson, with Mourinho appointed as his assistant manager. Living in the same apartment block at the time was another future Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, the young André Villas-Boas, who, aged 16, introduced himself to Robson. Robson subsequently appointed Villas-Boas to work in the Porto observation department and helped him gain his UEFA "C" coaching badge in Scotland, despite him technically being ineligible as he was aged 17. Porto were in a poor state when Robson arrived and the average attendance had dwindled to 10,000. The club promptly went on to beat Robson's former club, Sporting CP, in the Taça de Portugal final, following that achievement with successive League titles in the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons.

Such was the impact of Robson at Porto, he became known to the locals as "Bobby Five-O" in honour of the number of matches Porto won 5–0, and he signed a new contract with the club in 1995. Suffering from malignant melanoma and missing the first few months of the 1995–96 season, Robson still successfully led Porto in defence of their league title. 

A phone call during the summer of 1996 from Barcelona vice-president Joan Gaspart to discuss Luís Figo resulted in an offer of employment with the Spanish club. Robson took over in July 1996, where again his assistant was Mourinho. One of the key decisions Robson made during his brief tenure at Barcelona was the US$19.5 million signing of Ronaldo, who was influential in a season when Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España and European Cup Winners' Cup. Robson himself was voted European Manager of the Year for 1996–97.

The 1997–98 season saw Robson moved "upstairs" to the general manager position, with Louis van Gaal taking over as manager, but Robson stayed in this position for only one season before returning to manage PSV on a short-term deal for the 1998–99 season. PSV missed out on the league title, finishing third behind Feyenoord and Willem II, but Robson still led the club to victory in the Johan Cruyff Shield and qualification for the UEFA Champions League on the last day of the season.

Return to England

After Robson's contract expired, he returned to England to take up a position in the Football Association's technical department, but following the resignation of Ruud Gullit at Newcastle United, Robson moved to St James' Park in September 1999.

In his first season in charge, 1999–2000, Robson led the club to an 11th-place finish, with 14 wins from his 32 matches in charge. Robson guided Newcastle from bottom of the Premier League to a fourth-place finish in the 2001–02 season. The following season, Newcastle finished third, ensuring qualification for the UEFA Champions League for the second consecutive year. However, Robson was unable to guide Newcastle through the Champions League qualifying rounds, and the club was dropped to participate in the UEFA Cup for the 2003–04 season. At the end of the 2003–04 season, Newcastle finished fifth in the table, five points short of the Champions League qualifying fourth place but reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup before losing to Marseille.

Robson held the Newcastle post until 30 August 2004, when he was dismissed by Freddy Shepherd, after a poor start to the Premier League season and alleged discontent in the dressing room.

 

Challenge Rules

You are to try and replicate Sir Bobby's managerial career by doing the following... in order:

• Load up England, Holland, Portugal and Spain and taking a mid-table (or lower) team in the Premier League (you can take charge of Ipswich if you want to be authentic, but obviously it may take longer) to European glory, with both league and FA cups on the way, you've got 13 years to do this but you probably won't need it.
• Becoming England manager and getting to 2 World Cups and a European Championship and trying to better his semi-final knockout.
• Go to Holland (PSV if you want to be authentic) and win two Eredivisie titles (plus a Dutch Super Cup), in 3 seasons.
• Move on to Portugal (either Sporting CP or Porto for authenticity) and win two league titles along with a Portuguese Cup and Portuguese Super Cup, within 4 seasons.
• Move on to Spain (again Barcelona for those authentic feels) and win Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and the Europa League (or Champions League) all within 1 year.
• Own formations only.
• No unlockables, edited databases, or use of the editors.
• Evidence is required, I'd suggest posting a career thread for us to follow.
• No cheating - Restarting to avoid injuries counts as cheating!

Bonus stage:

The challenge officially ends there, but you can get bonus points for then going to Newcastle and trying to win anything... literally anything and you'd be worshipped as a god and have Gregg's pasties and sausage rolls appear on gilded platters whenever you wanted and you could have an endless supply of... well I suppose Brown Ale, but it's not even made there anymore maybe Radgie Gadgie or Workie Ticket, this bonus stage can only last 5 seasons!

 

Normal Team Points

• League Points +
• Goals Average (GD) +
• 50 Points for Winning the League.
• 20 Points for any Domestic Cup's Won.
• 50 Points for any European Trophies.

England Points:

• 50 Points for getting past a semi-final of a World Cup or European Championship.
• 20 Points for winning it.

Bonus Points

• If you manage to defeat Argentina, Germany or Denmark in a World Cup or European Championship you get an extra 50 points (100 if it's by penalties).
• If it takes you longer than Sir Bobby to complete a stage your points get halved for that stage (rounding down).
• If you get sacked before you can complete a stage the challenge is over.
• If you get sacked and have already completed and are just waiting to get the next job, then just take your points so far that season.
• Any bonus stage (Newcastle at the end) points are doubled when added to your total score.

 

Leaderboard

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by geordiekrispy