Harry de Cosemo - Black and White Knight

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021

Pitch Publishing

A2 Yeoman Gate

Yeoman Way

Durrington

BN13 3QZ

www.pitchpublishing.co.uk

Harry De Cosemo, 2021

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Print ISBN 9781785317637

eBook ISBN 9781785319082

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THE FIRST thing you noticed about Sir Bobby Robson was his stature. He was a big man, a bear of a man, something that didnt really come across from afar. He was tough as teak, too. Tough enough to physically fight with his players in the early days at Ipswich Town, when he was struggling to impose his authority. He had a tunnel-vision obsession for football and for work, and his family would suffer for it.

Those elements of his character are worth mentioning, because if you knew Bobby and loved him, the easiest thing to do is sanctify his memory. We are all guilty of it and we do it because the other parts of his personality, the more celebrated parts, are all true. He was dignified and proud and funny and solicitous and engaging, with a deep curiosity about other people and what made them tick. But the football bit? Stubborn, certain and relentless.

It is still difficult to grasp that Bobby played on the same pitch as Jackie Milburn and managed Alan Shearer, Milburns successor as Newcastle Uniteds greatest goalscorer; that he watched Albert Stubbins, his childhood hero, at St James Park and inspired Jermaine Jenas there six decades later; that he nurtured the coaching talent of Jos Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. He was a titan who spanned generations.

Ive written before that Bobby carried stardust with him. Its a romantic notion, but its the best way I can describe it. When you spent time in his company, that stardust rubbed off. His former players tell stories of knocking on his office door, full of fury at being left out of the team, and then leaving a few minutes later, feeling inches taller, feeling happy and fulfilled and also feeling baffled. How the hell did that happen?

Ive got a bit of experience of that. I worked with Bobby on his final book, which was about Newcastle the club and the city. His body was failing by then. He was grievously ill with cancer, a disease he wrestled with for so long, but which never defined him. But our sessions together, poring over old photographs and sifting through his memory, felt like sustenance. I would leave feeling so guilty, as if I was draining existence from him.

Our relationship stretched through my lifetime, not that he had been aware of it. I had followed him to Langley Park Infant School in County Durham just when he was working miracles at Portman Road. He was always an aspirational figure. When he became England manager, when he led his team to Italia 90, he was part of a narrative which changed my life and football in this country forever.

The 1980s were not fun in the North East; they were full of industrial strife. Many of us felt battered by the government, left to rot by the rest of the country. Being a football fan was not easy; the game was dirty and violent and spurned. Bobbys side, crammed with local talent like Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Bryan Robson and, most notably, Paul Gascoigne, made me feel English in a way I hadnt before and havent since. They were us. England was ours.

When Bobby returned to Newcastle as manager, I ghostwrote his column for The Times, which was hardly an onerous task. He had such a way with words, such a colourful turn of phrase. When he left undermined by the clubs hierarchy and desperately upset by it we kept in touch. Wed natter about football, gossip about Newcastle and he would tut and shake his head. Then came the book and a heavy responsibility. I knew it was part of his legacy.

So hed gone from hero to colleague to mentor and then finally to friend. On a couple of awkward occasions, I tried to explain exactly what he meant to me and Im not sure he quite understood, but it blurred those professional edges. In the end, I donated my fee for the book to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, not because Im a wonderful person or couldnt have done with the money, but because I was so very desperate to make him proud

It makes me proud again that, all these years later, Harry has kindly involved Bobbys foundation in his own book about Newcastle. It amazes me that he feels Bobbys spirit spanning the generations. It is the most humbling part about the foundation, that people who didnt know Bobby and probably dont remember him can be inspired to raise funds on his behalf, to pull on a pair of running shoes for the first time, to challenge themselves to help others, to support the way we treat and research cancer.

Bobbys spell at Newcastle is like a dream now and I wish I could relive it, to remind myself of the club it can be when it puts its mind to it, to feel that buzz of possibility in the city. I wish I could sit with him again and soak up his knowledge and not take it for granted. This book is the next best thing. Youll see the hard work, the sacrifice, the hours Bobby put in to lift Newcastle from the bottom to the top of the Premier League, to take us so close. And I will scour the pages in search of his stardust.

I NEVER met Sir Bobby Robson, much to my regret, yet he still had a profound impact on me from an early age. It has been a real honour delving into his life through those who knew him best. Ive become humbled by the journey writing this book has taken me on. He is somebody I could talk about for hours on end, and I have loved being able to put that energy to good use over the past few rather difficult months caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

My dad, Mark, first introduced me to Newcastle United, St James Park and Sir Bobby as a six-year-old. Without him, those journeys up the A19 every other Saturday and the opportunities they afforded me, this book simply wouldnt have been possible. It means a great deal to me that I can repay him in a small way with something that makes me so incredibly proud. I cant wait for him to read it.

To my mum, Gill, my brothers, James and Richard, and my best mate, Pete, thank you for being there for me when Ive needed you most.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Liz Luff at the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation for all of her help. From first meeting in the Copthorne Hotel on the Quayside in Newcastle to discuss my tentative idea, to aiding me in sourcing crucial interviews and proofreading, she played a huge role in making this book a reality.