I disagree completely. I don't think there was any logic. I think McCabe just wanted to get him in because he was star struck. He fancied a photo on his wall with the former England captain so appointed him as our manager.
I think us supporters were pretty much all against the appointment at the time weren't we? Certainly that's the way I recall it.
McCabe actually explained why he appointed Robson.
Remember he was trying to rule the world...buying clubs in China, Australia, Hungary and Belgium.
He explained that he wanted to improve our international profile...basically to improve our reputation on the world stage.
His 1st choice manager was Kenny Dalglish...he also asked ex England manager to be director of football...both politely refused.
His 2nd choice was Brian Robson...anyone under 40 might not realise that Robson was Captain Marvel...known through out the world as one of Man Utds best ever players. He had a record of managing at West Brom and Middlesboro both similar sized clubs to us...he got Middlesboro promoted and (unlike Warnock) managed to avoid relegation from the PL with West Brom.
There were concerns at the time that Robson might be past his best...so the logic was to appoint the best assistant manager who was an expert on tactics.
Brian Kidd was highly rated as the best coach in the game (he‘s now working with Pep at Man City) so Robson would be used to attract loan top players (Hugo Eghiogue and Gary Cahill said their main reason for joining us was to work with their hero Brian Robson) with Kidd working on coaching and tactics......remember the plan was to play a passing style instead of Warnocks fast long ball.
Early games we showed excellent passing controlling possesion, however our attacks were too slow...there was little goal mouth action...it was like watching a game of chess. However the football was decent but it was a culture shock for many of our supporters who preferred hoofball lower standard but plenty of goal mouth action.
After a few weeks our fans started booing the constant sideways passing football just keeping possession at all costs.
So Robson changed style and went more long ball...the problem then became we were stuck in between styles with half the team playing a nice patient passing game and half playing long ball. We looked a mess as though we didn’t know what we were doing and Robson’s post match interviews were even more embarrassing. He said the same stuff after every match and it never linked to the actual match....based on his interviews it seemed he didn’t know what he was doing.....they would have probably been better interviewing Brian Kidd to gain a better insight. Robbo was correctly sacked.
