No, it was pure luck, anyone who thought Bryan Robson would be a good managerial appointment at the time we employed him clearly doesn’t have a clue!
Agree, there were concerns about Robson’s managerial ability but that wasn’t the reason for appointing him.
The irony is that year is the most ambitious the club has been in its history.
McCabe wanted world domination, he was involved with Chegdu Blades, Ferencvsros, West Coast Mariners and even a Brazilian team.
Although we liked Warnock, on the international stage he wasn’t a good “face” for our club. Most people overseas had never even heard of Neil Warnock.
However Brian Robson was Captain Marvel, a Man Utd and England legend known through out the world.
Having him as the face of the club would have a Frank Lampard effect, we were able to attract Cahill and Egiogue, just because of Robson.
Robson’s cv was better than Warnock because he’d not only won a promotion from the Championship but also (unlike NW) won a relegation battle in the PL.
Many thought (including me) Robbo was on the way down so the board appointed the highly rated Brian Kidd as his assistant.
Yes, the same Brian Kidd who is now with Guardiola at Man City. Kidd had also been a manager himself at Blackburn,
so the theory was the double act of the 2 Brian’s would be the dream team solution.
I remember Robson’s 1st few matches, we controlled possession playing slow patient football, there were few chances at either end.
Our fans couldn’t handle the massive culture shock compared to Warnocks high tempo direct...plenty of action in both penalty areas style.
Our defenders would pass it amongst themselves....and you’d hear our fans “just smash it up field`’
Robson eventually changed his style and started playing more direct but half the team preferred to play the patient passing game
So we became stuck in between styles as though the players didn’t know what they were supposed to do.
My memories of Robson were the terrible post match interviews as though he was in another planet or drunk.
Every single post match interview was exactly the same regardless of the performance or result, it’s as though he wasn’t watching the match.
