Is it true that you lost your place in England’s 1962 World Cup team to a young Bobby Moore? Did you know then he’d go on to achieve what he did?
Steve Cook, Knebworth
I hurt my ankle in training and Bobby came in for me and went on to play what, 107 times? We all knew that Bobby had potential. He was a good-looking boy with all that blond hair and had something about him. He came in and just grew and grew as a player, and what a player. If you’re going to lose your place to anybody, why not Bobby Moore?
At Fulham, did you feel like a Londoner and could you understand the Cockney accent?
Andy Ladd, Bletchley
I adapted as you had to do. It was very different to the North East but I settled in well. I never picked up the real Cockney accent, all that apple and stairs stuff, but I could understand them. I grew very fond of the Cockneys though and I like London very much. I spent several parts of my life in the area, and lived and worked there for eight years as England manager. Add that to my time at Fulham as player and manager and that’s 20 years of my life in the capital, so I love it down there.
Is it true that you learnt of your sacking as Fulham manager in 1968 from London’s Evening Standard?
Mark Riches, Whitstable
I did, yes. I was driving over Putney Bridge and there was an Evening Standard billboard on the pavement declaring, ‘Robson sacked’. I drove on thinking, what Robson is that then, and then it dawned on me. I left the club at 4.30pm and saw that headline about 15 minutes later. It was a monumental... what’s a nice expression for cock up? Let’s just say it was a huge faux pas. I was extremely bitter and very angry.
How long did it take to fall in love with Suffolk when you became Ipswich manager?
Mark Whatling, Ipswich
Oh, it only took about a year. I met a terrific board of directors and a great chairman, John Cobbold. I wasn’t that aware of the area, but my main home is still there and I adore it. I managed Ipswich for 14 years and it was my baby so Suffolk means a lot to me. Will I retire there? Who knows, but it’s a lovely part of the world.
Tell us one crazy story about John Cobbold...
Nick Maltby, New Zealand
I can tell you many. One Saturday, we went to Leicester and were two down after 20 minutes and got hammered. John came to me afterwards and said what enterprising football we were playing, was I doing anything special in training? Confused, I said: “Mr Chairman, we lost, we’re in our yellow kit.” He’s the best guy I ever worked with in football, an amazing character.
Another story about John is he loved a drink. When we won he’d always have a bottle of champagne and when we lost he’d have two. He’s the greatest chairman ever in football. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Would Kieron Dyer have got into the 1981 UEFA Cup-winning Ipswich side?
Gavin Whitfield, Liverpool
Kieron’s good enough to play for anybody but the side I built at Ipswich had a unique shape. We played with two strikers, no wingers, Eric Gates sitting off the front two, two semi-wide midfield players in Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen and Johnny Wark sitting in the holding role, so Kieron would have struggled to fit into that formation. Having said that, I believe he would walk into any other side and would do very well. He’s an exceptional talent.
If you had stayed at Portman Road in 1982 could you have kept that side together and would they have won the league?
Harry Panter, North London
Who knows if we would have won the league but we’d come bloody close already. We finished second in 1981 and then we finished second again the following year, which was my last. On both occasions, it went to the last day of the season so we we�re just a fingernail away. We were two players short of a championship-winning side and if I got an injury I couldn’t put in a big-name player like I can now, I had to look at a youngster. In that respect, we did phenomenally well.
It was a brilliant side, the best I ever created or worked with. I had a great team at PSV that won their league, I’m building a good team here, I had fantastic players at Barcelona like Figo, Ronaldo, Luis Enrique, but that Ipswich team was phenomenal [Sir Bobby’s eye’s light up with the memories].
The likes of Gates, Brazil, the two Dutchmen, they were brilliant. It was a perfect system and one we created to suit the players we had. With Wark in the middle, Gates could push on, but if there was a problem, one whistle from the dug-out and Gates was back alongside Warky, the Dutchmen would go wide and it was a straightforward 4-4-2.
On the way to winning the UEFA Cup in 1981, we went to St Etienne who had a brilliant team full of French internationals who would light up the World Cup a year later. They had Platini, Battiston, Larios, the Dutchman Johnny Rep, and we beat them 4-1 in France. Unbelievable times. I shall never forget them.
What, if anything, did Paul Mariner have to his game that Ronaldo doesn’t?
Viren Soma, North London
Heading ability. The one thing that immediately springs to mind is that if Ronaldo has one weakness it’s his aerial ability. It’s amazing because he’s not a small man, he has a wonderful physique and in training on free technical headers he was great, but put him under pressure with a defender and he couldn’t do it. Mariner on the other hand was a fantastic target man and brilliant in the air. He could win it, he could flick it on, he could pull to the back post, decide whether to go for goal or knock it back. Mariner had what I call vision in the air. That would be the significant difference between the two.
Is it creepy having a statue of yourself up in Ipswich?
Those Were the Days, on-line Ipswich fanzine
Well no, it’s not creepy. It’s what the club, the fans and the borough council wanted to do for me so that was very nice. I’m very proud of it. I don’t think I’ll see much of it but I’m very pleased it’s there.
My mate, an Ipswich fan, tells me you rejected Gazza as a youngster. Did you foresee his behavioural problems and did that make coaching him with England awkward?
William Abbs, Norwich
We sent him home, yes, but he only came to us to have a look, a 14-year-old on trial. We didn’t think about his behaviour. That wasn’t an issue. I didn’t know him very well, but there were never any reports of him misbehaving. He was very chubby – although he showed some ability, he was in poor shape – but being a Geordie lad, Newcastle always had first choice and they were very keen on him, so that was that. Later on, when I had him with England, there was never a problem. Paul was a smashing lad. He was a great trainer; he loved it. I can honestly say I never had a problem with Paul.
Given the choice, would you rather have won the World Cup as a player or as a manager?
DavyBoy via e-mail
As manager. It’s not that I didn’t love playing, I enjoyed it very much and my advice to players is don’t think about management until you have completely finished your playing career. It’s the most wonderful time of your life. But as a player you are representing yourself, as a manager you represent the whole nation, the team, the fans, the whole country. As the manager, you are in control of everything.
If Gary Lineker had handled the ball into the net in Mexico 1986, would you have said: ‘I didn’t see the incident’?
Rhidian, via e-mail
No, I wouldn’t [a serious tone comes into Sir Bobby’s voice]. I would have said Gary conned the referee, it’s a terrible error �and we should never have won a game like that. I was so angry that day, so angry. It still angers me now. Listen, we were playing for the semi-final of the World Cup and we were geared up to knock out the favourites. They had a great team, not only Maradona, they had Valdano and Butragueño [that’s Jorge Burruchaga] but we were on form and confident so to lose to a goal like that was terrible.
God, I was angry with that referee and the linesman. I didn’t talk to them because I was worried what I’d do. The ref was from Tunisia, I think, and for the life of me I can’t recall where the linesman was from, but it was some other sub-standard football country. Tunisian football has improved but in 1986 Tunisia was far from recognised for its football so to put a Tunisian in charge of a game like England-Argentina – what a shambles!
What was your lowest point as manager of England and how close were you to resigning?
Marc Milmo, London
The lowest point would have to be after the European Championships in 1988 in Germany. We played very badly, lost all three games and ?I handed in my resignation. I went to Bert Millichip who was the FA’s chairman, and a wonderful man and said, “I’ll walk.” Bert said, “Why would you want to do that?” I replied that we’d played poorly, the press were on my back and it might be best if I go. “If you can stick it, so can we,” he said, so I stayed and that was that.
Had England been successful in the penalty shootout against Germany at Italia 90, do you think you would have won the World Cup?
Stuart McCann, via e-mail
You can never say, can you, but my gut reaction would be yes. We had a score to settle after meeting Argentina in Mexico and the ‘Hand of God’ situation. Argentina had several of their best players out for the final and we were just coming good and were very much in the groove. We had exceptional team morale. Our team had developed into a side that was very hard to beat – well nobody beat us, did they? We were so disappointed to go out, absolutely gutted. Even now talking about it I get upset, I’ll never forget that feeling because we would have really fancied ourselves in that final. We would have loved every minute of it.
In the 1990 World Cup semi-final, could you have done anything different? I heard you were thinking of subbing Peter Shilton for Dave Beasant in the last minute because he had a better record at penalties?
Paul Hancock, Wetherby
That idea passed me by, yeah. Shilton wa