Captain Marvel. A name well earned.
Dispatches: ‘How to Buy a Football Club’ secretly filmed Robson telling undercover reporters posing as potential purchasers of a football club, how to make money out of owning a club.
Robbo was quoted as saying:
‘Football lost its sporting thing when the money started coming in and Sky TV and all that. Football’s a business.’
Wow! Whatever next? And here’s me thinking Malcolm Glazer, John W Henry, Randy Lerner and Daniel Levy were all in it for love.
Robbo then went even further advising the reporters: ‘If you want big money, Sheffield Wednesday is the one to do it with. It could be a really big club. Loan deals are the key. If you can get really good players from the Premier League to come down, then that’s your best route.’ also commenting that getting them promoted to the Premier League could be worth £300 million.
Well f*ck me. Loaning players from the Premier League, is a good idea and getting promoted to the top tier can make your club worth much more. This is really quite a revelation no wonder there’s been a media outcry that Robson had the audacity to make such claims.
The reason the anti-United media have jumped on the kick Robson while he’s down campaign, is because the former Middlesboro boss, advised the reporters how to own two football clubs. Robson stated: It is how you name it, because you’re only allowed to own one club.’
That seems to be the smoking gun to many in the media, but what does that really prove? Robson was probably a tad naive speaking to people he didn’t really know about how there are ways round football club ownership, but was he blatantly and actively involved in corruption?
I’d argue he wasn’t, he was merely stating loopholes that anyone who bothers to look into it could have discovered.
Some disgruntled United fans have even tweeted that Robson should be sacked as his role as ambassador to the club.
Yeah why not? Let’s sack a player who at one time was arguably the sole reason United weren’t sitting in the second tier of English football, for being a little naive.
Robson played for United for 13 years with the sort of dedication, commitment and drive that only Roy Keane has ever come close to.
Some Reds may be upset by his actions and feel he’s damaged both his and the club’s reputation, but I’d argue he’s the unfortunate puppet in another “scoop” merely aimed at digging dirt on the one club always guaranteed to give you viewers.
The programme even tried to stick the knife into Sir Alex Ferguson, with one of the men being exposed -Thai FA advisor Joe Sim claiming to be mates with the United boss and even showing pictures of them together on his phone.
Sim claimed that Fergie took time off from managing United to give him betting tips and promised to loan him players.
Sir Alex’s lawyers subsequently released this statement:
‘It would be fair to say he (Sir Alex) does not see their relationship in the same close way that Mr Sim appears to have represented it.
‘He has never discussed the possibility of loaning any Manchester United players. He may have on occasions given an opinion on the likely outcome of matches but only in the course of normal social discussion.’
The fact that Channel 4 had gone to such lengths to try and involve Sir Alex in their programme when it was obvious from the start he had nothing to do with any of it, was nothing short of pathetic.
Good piece.
Not great for Robbo, but his part in this thing is far, far from the worst thing that former players have done. I would hazard a guess that a very sizeable chunk of those calling to sack Robson never saw him play and probably weren’t even around since 1999.
A good few of the others will think Mickey Thomas is funny and quirky when he makes jokes about him forging money and subsequently getting jailed.
Robbo should only be sacked by United if his involvement was so high it overshadows what he did as a legend for us. It doesn’t. No-where near. Even after the edits by Channel 4 to obviously show the worst bits.
If you ever saw Robson play, you would never ever call for him to be de-linked from the club as a result of this, unless you’ve not thought about it properly.
“Naive” is the word to describe our legend in all this. Possibly silly as well. And I hope he firmly removes himself from it, which I’m sure he will.
But at one point he was Manchester United…job for life.
Robson is a C*nt.
Hey Bob go F*CK yourself. Bryan R. the man.
great article.
Robbo has been silly here but to suggest that he is fired from his position at united is daft.
glad that most other media don’t really seem to see this story as a goer and it hasnt been whipped up into the usual frenzy that negative united stories generate.
Robbo is a fukcing legend!!!
Well said …Robbo is one of our finest legends…true or not…who is not out to make a quick buck or two….he’s not hurting anyone. They can edit and dub videos and do all sorts nowadays. How dare they do this to him in his condition…what do they want his blood and Man Utd;s come to think of it. Thanks for the article as I had a member on my page just now slagging Robbo of this gives him the answer.
RYAN GIGGS NO. 11 MAN UTD LEGEND NOW AND FOREVER
I ALWAYS USE YOUR STORIES MANY THANKS FOR ALL THE UPDATES.
REGARDS. ANNA
legend!
Agree with Justin, Robbo was a bit naive but they obviously set out to tarnish his reputation. The attempt to bring Sir Alex into it was an utter joke, just some nobody trying to make money by name-dropping the most famous football manager in the world.
Robson is an underhand ex pisshead who should be booted out of the game.
Legend my arse!
You deluded lot,Robson was shown as what he and your club including the twisted rednosed one are.He was prepared to shaft a club that he used to manage for his own 20% share and 5% management cut with a load of lies,only a fuckin shower like you lot could actually defend the low life fuck.
Irrespective of whether he was just pointing out loopholes and being a little naive, Robson is part of a syndicate that was about to allow channel4’s impostor businessmen to be in control of 2 premier league clubs. He voiced no concerns about it, although he did mention that he would not allow the clubs to be folded and the stadia sold.
If deals like this are allowed to happen, it would have terrible implications on football from the fans’ point of view.
I’m not saying he should/shouldnot be fired or grilled, but you cant dismiss his actions as simply being ‘naive’ just because he’s a club legend.
*I meant two Championship clubs