Shepherd Stopped My England Bid

By Nick Raynor
July 19 2005

Former Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson has revealed that Magpies Chairman Freddy Shepherd stopped him taking the England job.

Kevin Keegan resigned from the England job in October 2000, and when the FA approached Shepherd to ask if Bobby Robson could take over for a short while, Shepherd said no.

 

Robson has talked about the incident in his autobiography, currently being featured in the Daily Mail.

 

Robson said:

 

"Going home to manage Newcastle was sufficiently special for a man aged 66 but the following autumn, in October 2000, I almost made another dramatic return - to the England tracksuit.

 

"My country apparently needed me and I was eager to answer the call.

 

"The story begins at Wembley with rain and a resignation. I watched Kevin Keegan's team lose a dismal match 1-0 to a freakish free-kick by German midfielder Dietmar Hamann.

 

"Taunted by England supporters, as I and other England managers had been, Kevin announced to the players in the dressing room that he was quitting with immediate effect. I thought no more about it, not in a personal sense, at any rate.

 

"The question of who would guide them through the next stage of a troubled campaign did not intrude on my work at Newcastle until the chairman called me in after we played Everton at home on October 21.

 

Robson then describes the conversation, where Freddy Shepherd said:

 

"`I'll be straight with you,'

 

`The Football Association have been on to me requesting your services but you're not going.

 

"`We've just brought you back here, we're pleased with you, you're doing a great job and we're looking for continuity and stability. You can't do it part-time. This is a big club and you haven't got the energy to do both jobs. You're under contract and we're not letting you go'.

 

Robson replied:

 

"`Fine, if that's how you feel about it. I accept what you say. Mind you, I'd like to do it and I can do it for a while'.

 

To which Shepherd said:

 

"`You're not doing it'.

 

Robson concluded this part of his autobiography with this:

 

"I was profoundly disappointed not to be able to go to my country's assistance. I still possessed reserves of energy and by now the club were in the ascendant. There was a long way still to travel but I was quite sure we would be safe from relegation."