Blackwell Returns - Robson Leaves

Now the dust has settled after the departure of Bryan Robson (no doubt with a handsome seven figure pay off) and the appointment of Kevin Blackwell it will be interesting to see if anything can be salvaged from this season.

Bryan Robson was a hugely unpopular and surprising appointment with most blades to such an extent that to survive the season he needed a much better return from both results and performances to stay in a job.

There is no doubt that he has signed some players that may not have come if Neil Warnock was still the manager (although Warnock may not have considered them to be his type of player) and probably missed out on a few more who did not want to play outside of the premiership i.e. Stelios, Campo etc and while it is clear what the club were hoping to achieve you cant help feeling that this change of football culture at the club needed to be made when we were still in the premiership.

After many years of passion and commitment on the pitch both from Warnock’s teams and before him Dave Bassett’s Robbos reign was hugely disappointing and more reminiscent of Adrian Heaths short time as manager Robson was given funds and many observers consider the squad to be the best in the division albeit on paper.

Upon his arrival he claimed he had inherited a good squad capable of mounting a promotion challenge and that it would only require fine tuning then months later he claimed that the players were not as good as he had originally thought they were.

Robson often spoke of footballing intelligence and playing the game the right way and that is all well and good but sometimes in this division you need to roll your sleeves up and battle which is one attribute that seemed to be missing on occasions this season.

Would he have turned it around given time? Probably not he was a legend as a player but as a manager he was pretty ordinary the highlight being an indifferent time at Middlesboro and who can forget Terry Venables being drafted in to help him avoid relegation.

Former coach Kevin Blackwell appointed manager until the end of the season now has a chance to impress and stake his claim to be given the job long term which is an opportunity he will no doubt relish.

For their part the fans (now they have been granted their wish) need to go back to turning Bramall Lane into a fortress which is what it has been for so long an intimidating place for opposing teams to come and play in and if that happens and the new manager and players do their bit who knows a play off place can still be achieved.

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