Robson Asks for Time As Fans Vent Spleen

The neighbors are friendly and the immediate locality attractive but when Bryan Robson ventures out from the sanctuary of his Sheffield town house, Yorkshire's Steel City can seem an unforgiving place. "It's so windy, some days it's really wild out there," joked the former England captain this week after a morning spent putting his Sheffield United players through their paces at the club's exposed, hilltop training ground.

Unfortunately harsh weather rolling in from the Peak District ranks as the least of his concerns right now. No matter that he has made United a tidy profit on transfer dealings since succeeding Neil Warnock last summer or that a team gradually being weaned off their old long-ball game have not yet abandoned hope of an instant return to the Premier League, Robson is deemed "under pressure".

Indeed, when United's manager received a Monday night summons to Brussels for talks with Kevin McCabe, the club's Belgium based plc chairman, after defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in last weekend's derby, some observers believed he was on his way out of Bramall Lane. Though McCabe instead reassured Robson he retained his unstinting support, some fans have been calling for the manager's removal since early autumn and are threatening to boycott Sunday's FA Cup tie at home to Manchester City.

Happily Robson appears to be taking such adversity in his relaxed and good-humored stride. "On match days I've been getting a bit of stick. These fans expect to be top of the league and I understand that," explained a man who believes he is "a much better" manager than when he was guiding Middlesbrough to promotions and cup finals. "But this is a good club and a good city. When I'm out and about near the town house I've bought here people are very nice, very courteous."

In the vicinity of Bramall Lane locals are also impatient. "The expectations are massive," said Robson, whose wife Denise has been upset by the vitriol directed at her husband during games. "When the players got promoted the year before last it wasn't expected and there was no real pressure but the expectation now is that they can get straight back up. There's a lot of pressure and, if you don't get results, you're going to get stick."

He would prefer his critics to do a little arithmetic before piling on the abuse. "I always thought I was going to be able to spend all the money I raised from player sales but that hasn't been the case," said the 51-year-old who has introduced a handful of newcomers including James Beattie and Gary Naysmith to a side sorely missing its former talisman, Phil Jagielka. "It's making it difficult to change things the way I'd like to. It's making my job much harder."

It also necessitates stylistic compromise. "Neil [Warnock] played very direct football whereas I want us to be able to pass the ball really well in the last third," said Robson, whose football philosophy is reinforced during frequent chats with Sir Alex Ferguson, his former manager at Manchester United. "But this squad is probably suited to a more direct style, so at the moment I'm just trying to get the players to mix things up a bit, letting them be a bit direct at times but also encouraging some good passing."

Unable to buy success Robson - who rebuffed the FA's offer of the England job before Glenn Hoddle's appointment - is thinking laterally and pondering offering his players private sessions with sports psychologists.

At Boro he would have scoffed at such a notion but subsequent managerial sojourns at Bradford City and West Bromwich Albion allied to the completion of his Pro Licence coaching qualification have left him newly open-minded. "I had seven years without coaching badges at Middlesbrough but they definitely help you," he insisted. "They make you better organized and open to new ideas but, above all, they make you a better communicator. You learn how to be very precise with your words and body language when you're coaching. Before doing the badges I'd talk to players about things but feel they hadn't really taken them on board. Now I know how to ensure they understand properly."

Nonetheless arguably Robson's most far-reaching managerial achievement took place when he still maintained it was all about instinct. It was in the mid-1990s when he persuaded Middlesbrough's chairman, Steve Gibson, to establish an academy which has become the envy of the Premier League, producing a stream of homegrown talent including Stewart Downing and David Wheater.

"Helping set up that youth structure at Middlesbrough is one of the best things I've ever done," said Robson. On Teesside his youth development vision was born out of annoyance. "I discovered Jonathan Woodgate had gone to Leeds even though he was a Middlesbrough fan," he recalled. "I thought 'how on earth have we lost out on this kid?'" He decided to stop it happening again.

"It was when Newcastle [under Kevin Keegan] did away with their youth set-up and we took advantage by saturating the north-east with scouts and making sure all the best players in the area came to Middlesbrough. It was our idea but great credit should go to Dave Parnaby [Boro's academy manager] and the others up there who have made our original structure work. They've stuck with the plan, given it time and it's doing really well." McCabe could do worse than place similar faith in Robson's long-term strategy for Sheffield United.