Robson has the answer to age-old question

Emmet Maloneon the man the FAI believe will help Steve Staunton adjust to the demands of international management

Even by the standards of Bobby Robson, dropping in on Craven Cottage this afternoon to see the Premiership game between Fulham and Newcastle United will be a labour of love. At 72, the former England international still professes his tireless devotion to a game that has been good to him over the years and there can be few greater pleasures for him in football than returning to the club where he first made his name as a player for an encounter with the side he first supported as a child and then, much later, returned home to manage.

The day in London, however, will surely have a bitter-sweet edge to it for the veteran coach who was this week recruited to advise Steve Staunton on the running of the Irish international team. Both of the clubs so close to his heart ultimately sacked him. Fulham, where he had moved into management less than 12 months after retiring as a player, did so almost 40 years ago fearing he was too inexperienced to guide them back to the top flight. Those in power at Newcastle, on the other hand, felt he was too old for the task of bringing silverware to Tyneside. Each had cause to regret their hastiness in the period that followed.

Between the two dismissals Robson won trophies in four countries - England, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain - managed England to the last eight of the 1986 World Cup and to within a penalty shoot-out of the 1990 final (in both instances losing to eventual champions) and played a role in developing many of England's, and a few of the world's, best players. Not bad for a lad who looked destined to be an electrician down the coalmines of Durham.

Robson's list of former employers, which includes PSV Eindhoven, Porto and Barcelona, is impressive and the clubs he turned down or was refused permission to talk to (Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton to name just three in England) give a good indication of just how highly he was rated in his day.

During the 17 months or so since he was sacked by Newcastle the offers have not been of quite the same calibre. Portsmouth, Hearts and Sheffield Wednesday have sought and failed to recruit him. Now the FAI have secured his services but how well or for how long the arrangement works remains to be seen.

A recurring theme this week has been Robson's age and questions regarding his ability to undertake another job in football. The man himself has few doubts on the subject. "If I'm honest I've hated not being involved with the game," he observed last year. "I'd know if it was time to pack it all in, but it isn't. I've got the energy (for a big management job) and I'll always have the experience."

Few of those who watched him in action at Newcastle doubt his ability to justify that self-belief. Robson may have struggled to control an out-of-control dressingroom during his last few months at the club but his work-rate and commitment were beyond question as he regularly started work at 7am and worked 12-hour days.

It's questionable whether any manager could have sorted out the problems he encountered with players like Kieron Dyer, Laurent Robert or Craig Bellamy. Graeme Souness fared no better - two were sold for well below their value while the third, repeatedly a victim of injury, has barely been seen in public since an onfield punch-up with a team-mate.

Robson's public image, however, was increasingly that of an elderly gent struggling to cope in the world of modern football. The fact Robson had survived for some 50 years in a game that has never been a place for the faint-hearted suggested he was no shrinking violet but he was consistently undermined by his public gaffes, mainly with players' names, something that allowed his enemies around his last club to gently hint at lurking senility.

"The whole thing was terribly unfair," says one close observer. "I mean, I know for a fact he got Peter Reid's name wrong when he was naming his squad for the 1990 World Cup. He's always done it, but it's easy to link it to his age now as he gets on and there's no avoiding the fact his age is increasingly going to be an issue in whatever job he does next."

The list of press conference blunders is almost endless with his reference to World Cup winner Laurent Blanc as Lauren Bacall just one of the more memorable.

"Most we just ignored," says a journalist who attended most of his briefings, "because after a while it just isn't funny any more and the reality is it gave a completely misleading impression of the man. The fact is that when he talked about a game or the game in general he almost always sent everybody in the room, even the most cynical hacks, away energised and enthused about what they were doing."

Since losing a job he coveted dearly he has made no secret of his desire to land another but he has more than filled in his time. Aside from media work, he works with the English FA coaching schools, fulfils countless speaking engagements, undertakes commercial work and travels extensively to games. In September he even travelled to China along with Tony Blair as part of a trade and cultural delegation.

He is, perhaps because of his family's working-class background, a man with a keen sense of his own worth and the estimated €250,000 the FAI will pay him for "advising" Staunton looks a rather meagre figure by his standards.

What is unclear, however, is just what he will give, or get to give, in return. He never made any secret of his frustration at being kicked upstairs at Barcelona in order to make way for Louis van Gaal and has, even after bringing highly respected coaches in to help him at Newcastle, sought to maintain a hands-on approach to his work with players.

Within the FAI the hope is he will see the task of making Staunton into a great manager as a worthy challenge. Among those who know him better there is little doubt he is capable of living up to the task but there is also a belief that while he retains his almost legendary energy and enthusiasm, he simply won't be able to settle for the limitations of his new role.