FA should find a role for Bobby

It was only a few weeks ago that Sir Bobby Robson was telling me how he planned to get Newcastle back into the Champions League this season.

Times change, people change, but Robson's enthusiasm for football hasn't. It took root during his schooldays in a mining village in County Durham and provided the platform for a glorious managerial career that stretches back nearly 40 years to his first job at Fulham, where he lasted 10 months before they sacked him.

He has just been sacked again - for the last time, because at 71 the elder statesmen of English football needs to put his feet up and spend time with his grandchildren.

Robson has had a wonderful career. We remember the FA Cup and UEFA Cup triumphs with Ipswich and England's World Cup semi-final in 1990, but he is also revered in Holland and Portugal, where he won national titles with PSV Eindhoven and Porto.

Perhaps Robson, who fought and beat cancer, should have retired earlier but he felt he was a man with a mission at Newcastle.

Raised by strict Methodist parents, he became increasingly irritated by the attitude of some players and agents. Keiron Dyer, Craig Bellamy and even Alan Shearer had all questioned Robson's decisions.