Sir Bobby Robson's 10 Greatest Moments At Newcastle

2. That Quote

In 2008, Sir Bobby wrote a book about Newcastle entitled My Kind Of Toon, in which he spoke about everything in Newcastle: the history, the culture, the architecture, the vibrancy of the city, and, of course, its football club. Many lines from it have been used here and there for various fan groups and newspapers to help get their point across, it's about as crassly plagiarised as the Keep Calm and Carry On posters are in fact, but one paragraph in there seems to have stuck with every football fan who's read the book. "What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It€™s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It€™s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It€™s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father€™s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love." Whilst this beautiful sentiment has been trotted out and dressed up countless times since its original publishing, I'm yet to come across a better explanation of that otherwise indescribable emotional power a football team can have on a person. Sir Bobby saw things in the game that you or I never could, which is why he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in management while I'm merely occasionally asked to write about it. But with that paragraph above I'm truly humbled to know that if he'd had to do my job instead, had never been one of the best in the world at that as well.