English Football and the World Has Lost a Shining Light in Sir Bobby Robson

Fair play to Glenn Hoddle. The former England manager has not always managed to select the right, words for any given occasion but his tribute to Sir Bobby Robson was unimprovable. "He was a football man, a very endearing man, quite comical," Hoddle said.

Every word of that fond remembrance rings true, and there is no chance of anyone taking the slightest offense at the last two because the whole country knows it to be so. It was Robson, after all, who first alerted the nation to the fact that Paul Gascoigne was "daft as a brush", and at the World Cup four years earlier, dismissed talk of Maradona's hand of God goal to make clear that England had, in fact, been beaten by the hand of a rascal.

By his own admission Robson never won anything as a player – typically, he seems to have had scant regard for the small matter of 20 England caps and a permanent place in the affections of Fulham and West Bromwich supporters – and though his managerial record at home and especially abroad stands comparison with the best this country has produced, it was the way in which he managed that made him such a popular figure.

Gascoigne was not the only personality at Italia 90 responsible for re-engaging the nation's interest in football and even reaching out to skeptical non-believers. Gazza's tears in Turin may be the most famous single image from that watershed tournament, though everyone knows how the clip pans out, with Gary Lineker's mime to the bench and Robson's resigned gesture in reply.

Earlier the manager's much-loved jig after David Platt's late winner in a knockout game against Belgium had provided an unforgettably joyous image, not just because a middle-aged man wearing a suit and an accreditation tag is bound to look a bit daft when dancing on the pitch, but because Robson had endured more bitter and unjustified abuse in his time than any other England World Cup manager and it was a delight to see him not only thriving but jiving.

If it was Robson's misfortune to span the years between football's innocence and the money-driven madhouse we have now, where managers and players fully expect to be attacked on all fronts, but are paid enough to put up with it, his greatest achievement was to confound his detractors with such generosity of spirit that they ended up feeling cheap. At no time during England's run to the semi-finals in Italy did Robson choose to stick two fingers up to his critics. Cast off rather harshly by England, he did not grumble, but took the then unusual step of coaching abroad, where almost instant success in Holland, Portugal and Spain let the Football Association know just what they had lost, even if his tactics had been questioned by England players. He could have returned to Newcastle earlier, but preferred to honour his contract with Barcelona, and when he did turn up on Tyneside, sorted out a mess and managed three consecutive top-five finishes.

It would be easy, though a little facile, to look at the almighty mess Newcastle are in now and blame Freddy Shepherd for not sticking with a good man. The truth is that Robson came to his favorite club too late and five brave years later the dismissal of a 71-year-old with health problems was almost an act of kindness. With that knack they have of doing the right thing at the wrong time Newcastle still waited until late August to show Robson the door, setting in motion a string of hasty appointments that have gradually brought the club to its knees. It is legitimate to wonder how Newcastle would have fared had they kept hold of Robson a little longer or found a way of channeling his wisdom and enthusiasm. Though perhaps the real lost opportunity was not picking him up in the early Nineties, around the time he was winning titles with PSV Eindhoven, Kevin Keegan was playing golf and Toon hopes were pinned on Ossie Ardiles.

Few Newcastle supporters would wish history to be rewritten to the extent of obviating the need for Keegan's triumphant march out of the Second Division, however, so perhaps it is better to remember things as they actually were. For a pensioner, Robson did a marvelous job of communicating with young players and keeping a lid on seething tensions and dressing-room strife that only became apparent when the place broke apart like Tito's Yugoslavia on his removal. Not content with showing Alan Shearer how to take the ball on the half turn so as not to play with his back to goal all the time, Robson stood up and showed the whole press room the stance he had asked his striker to adopt. And last, but not least, Newcastle's then 68-year-old manager became the first person in football to ridicule publicly Sir Alex Ferguson's stated plan to walk away from Manchester United on his 60th birthday. "He'll never do that," Robson correctly predicted. "If he thinks he will, he's fooling himself. When you're lucky enough to do this for a living, why would you want to give it up?"

Robson never did, that's for sure. English football has knights to spare, but the game, indeed the world, has lost a shining light.