229. Bobby Robson - More Than A Manager; movie review

BOBBY ROBSON - MORE THAN A MANAGER
Cert 12A
101 mins
BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong language

Last week, it was announced that Zinedine Zidane was leaving Real Madrid - the club he led to Champions League success the previous Saturday.
On the same day, my team were on an open-top bus celebration to mark their victory in the play-off game in the 4th division.
Football is a weird game, isn't it?
Bobby Robson was one of the most successful English managers of all-time and yet wouldn't be mentioned in same breath in terms of achievements as Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger.
A width of the post prevented him from leading England to a World Cup final and yet, only weeks before, the press had been trying to hound him out of his job.
Indeed, the Football Association had already made clear that the 1990 tournament would be his last hoorah.
The association's acronym FA could be adapted to denote how much its chiefs knows what makes a good national team boss.
Anyway, for any English or even European football fan, Gabriel Clarke and Torquil Jones' film about Robson's life is a riveting watch.
It covers all of the major moments of Robson's career from his early days as a playing leaving the north-east to returning there as manager 40 years later.
Of course, it focuses on hie heydays at Ipswich Town, what can be seen retrospectively as a success as England manager, his wonderful European sojourn in Holland, Portugal and Spain and his return to Newcastle.
Astonishingly throughout it all, Robson's reputation as being fair but firm never wavered. Unlike his peers such as Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson, he genuinely doesn't seem to have had a dark side.
Footage of interviews with Robson is accompanied by some great action and eulogies from some of football's great names.
I was most touched by the words of Paul Gascoigne who said that, many years after playing for England under Robson, his firmer manager, knowing of his strife, would just ring up to see how he was.
However, the documentary makes plain that there was a cost of Robson's devotion to the beautiful game in the shape of his family who he never saw enough and who became under fire during the worst of the criticism of his England management.
They give heartfelt interviews about the great man.
On the eve of World Cup 2018, this is the ideal pre-match build-up.

Reasons to watch: Wonderful insight into one of English football's great managers
Reasons to avoid: If you are not a football fan

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Director quote - Gabriel Clarke: "We're making a film about Bobby Robson's life because it's never been done before."

The big question - Should Robson have carried on as England manager?

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