There have been Newcastle United managers who are more deserving of a statue outside the ground than Robson, I think even he himself would be the first to admit that, but when you look at the entire footballing world for a man whose mere mention illicits a bigger smile from managers, players and fans alike, Sir Bobby has no equal. I attended his 80th Birthday Celebrations at Gateshead's iconic Sage earlier this year (a building Robson once joked looked like a giant armadillo) and the procession of loved ones and friends from the footballing world who made the time to journey all the way up to the banks of the Tyne on a Monday night was testament to the hole he's left in a lot of lives - Andre Villas-Boas having to get the train back down to London that night for training with Spurs the next morning. Benefitting from that night was the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, which was set up a year prior to his death. Being treated in the North East for what would ultimately be his final bout with the disease, Sir Bobby was told about the £500,000 needed to equip a new cancer drug trials centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, and within seven weeks of launching the foundation the target had been reached. In the years since well over £7million has been raised for similar endeavours across the country. A man whose warmth and grace reached far beyond football is still, this day, helping enrich the lives of so many. It's one of the few privileges I have in football to know that we both supported the same club, and that I witnessed his time in charge of it. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to followWhatCulture.com/NUFC on Twitter and Facebook.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
