From Ronaldo to Romario and Durham to Dublin... A Charismatic Bobby Robson Left His Imprint ; a Student and a Teacher of the Game He Loved, the Football World Unites in Grief Following the Loss of One of Its True Gentlemen [Eire Region]

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THE winter evenings always seemed colder in his corner of Suffolk, but Bobby Robson would emerge from the dressing room in a thin jacket, hands dug deep in pockets, breath billowing in the freezing air, ready to face the press.

Somebody would mumble a question, and Bobby would answer at moderate length; head bowed, staring at the shoes of his audience. Then, because we knew our man, we would say nothing. A silence would descend for 10, 12, 15 seconds, until Bobby could stand it no longer. In he would plunge, head swaying and shoulders rolling, with stormy gusts of passion and perception. And we would scribble and smile, conscious of our privilege, aware that we were being given not just a story, but an education.

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From Ronaldo to Romario and Durham to Dublin... A Charismatic Bobby Robson Left His Imprint ; a Student and a Teacher of the Game He Loved, the Football World Unites in Grief Following the Loss of One of Its True Gentlemen [Eire Region]

He would speak of his Ipswich players like a man reciting a litany: Burley, Mills, Beattie, Wark, Talbot. Joe Mercer once said of Bill Shankly that he 'thinks all his geese are swans'.

So it was with Bobby. In later years, he would nurture some of the best that the game has known, from Shilton and Gascoigne, Lineker and Bryan Robson to Romario, Ronaldo, Figo and Shearer.

But it was the Ipswich lads he would remember with most affection, for the...

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