What Sir Bobby Robson did for 'unknown' Sven-Goran Eriksson
Sir Bobby Robson's early helping hand to a young Sven-Goran Eriksson, who would follow in his footsteps and manage England.
The influence of the late, great Sir Bobby Robson on Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho is well known.
However, Sir Bobby influenced the managerial careers of many, many others in football, including one who would follow in his footsteps and manage England.
One young coach travelled to Suffolk to watch Robson train his Ipswich Town team in the mid-1970s – and never looked back.
That coach was Sven-Goran Eriksson, who will be laid to rest today in his native Sweden.
The football world has been united in grief for Eriksson, who passed away last month, aged 76, after a long illness.
Shortly before his death, Eriksson poignantly said: “I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do.
“Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowds, it’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it.”
Eriksson certainly lived his life to the full.
However, Eriksson was studious in his 20s, and he was keen to learn from one of the English game’s brightest managerial talents.
At the time of his visit to Ipswich, he was preparing to move into management after deciding to hang up his boots. Eriksson wanted to know how a club was run “from top to bottom”, according to Charlie Woods, who was Robson’s youth-team coach at the time.
“When I was youth-team coach at Ipswich with Bobby, one day he said ‘we’ve got a gentleman from Sweden coming. His name’s Sven-Goran Eriksson, and he wants to see how football clubs are run’,” said Woods, who also worked with Sir Bobby during his time in charge of England at Newcastle United.
“And he came, I think, two or three seasons on the trot. He used to watch Bobby training the first-team group, and he used to come me work my youth team. He would alternate between the two groups.
“I said to him ‘the most you’ll get is with the first team’.
“But he said ‘no, if I’m going to run a football club, I want all the aspects of youth and so on’.
“He used to watch us train. He did that for two to three seasons. He did that just as we started pre-season training.
“He was just trying to get into football. I believe he had just started a job in Sweden. He wanted to see how Bobby ran the football club, from top to bottom.
“He used to watch everybody train. What a lovely man. He really would ask questions (like) ‘how do you think this (should work), have you got any good young players’.
“He would come and watch the likes of (George) Burley, (Terry) Butcher, (Russell) Osman and Johnny Wark. They were all in my youth side then. He thoroughly enjoyed himself.
“He came for a week, and Bobby used to have him in his office, and talk to him, and things like that.”
England ‘advice’
Eriksson – who went on to have a hugely-successful, 40-year career in management – kept in touch in Robson, who influenced and inspired Guardiola and Mourinho during his time managing on the continent.
“Bobby was very helpful to Sven. I think he enjoyed his time at Ipswich Town, because I think he got the freedom of going anywhere he wanted in the club,” said Woods. “He was a very nice man, I liked him.”
Decades later, Eriksson turned to Robson for advice when he managed England, as Sir Bobby knew the pressures of the job all too well, and the Swede paid a warm tribute to the “great man” when he passed away in 2009.
Speaking at the time, Eriksson said: "He was beyond football a great man, one of the kindest people I ever met.
"He helped me a great deal when I was a young coach, and I visited him in Ipswich. He took me, an unknown coach from Sweden, down into the dug-out and explained the tactics. The year after Ipswich won the UEFA Cup, my team, Gothenburg, won it, and he came and presented the trophy.
"When I became coach of England, I called him many times, and he was always generous with his advice and helpful. It seems he was as friendly to everybody as he was to me.
“In fact, for me, he was the special one."