He had a fight with Craig Bellamy in Newcastle Airport!
Craig Bellamy was ready to quit Newcastle United.
He’d had a public fight with first-team coach and supposed mate John Carver before they were about to board a plane for a 2004 UEFA Cup match against Real Mallorca.
A chair was thrown, as were some harsh words. Neither man was the kind to take a step back in such circumstances.
There was absolutely no way Bellamy was going to get on the plane and he said as much.
And the next thing he knew, the plane was in the air and he was on the plane.
That, right there, was the magic of Sir Bobby Robson.
In his brilliant, controversial and open autobiography, Goodfella, the former United star reveals his genuine love for a man he describes as “the greatest.”
Sir Bobby knew how to get through to Bellamy like nobody else could.
Bellamy revealed: “The row before the Mallorca game had started at training a few hours earlier when I parked in John Carver's space at the training ground. I was being mischievous really.
“A little provocative, perhaps.
“I arrived at the training ground and he wasn’t there. He’s a coach. He should have been in before me so I parked in his space. I knew it would wind him up.
“I walked past him later that morning and said ‘hiya’, all proud of myself because of my little stunt, and he just walked straight past me without saying a word. It made me smile. I thought ‘job done’.
“My problem sometimes is that I don’t know when to stop. So I kept winding him up. I wouldn’t let it go. So by the time we got to Newcastle Airport to get the flight to Majorca, he was at snapping point and we had a confrontation. I was talking to someone else and I mentioned ‘JC’ loudly enough to make sure he heard me poking fun at him.
“He snapped and came marching over.
“He had a real go at me. We had a shouting match. I thought he had turned it from a joke into a proper argument.
“People had to keep us apart. So, suddenly I convinced myself that I was the wronged party. I was fuming.
“All my light-heartedness disappeared and we got involved in a real row.
“The reports said I threw a chair at him in the departure lounge that had been set aside for the players. That wasn’t entirely true.
“I was angry and I threw a chair out of the way so I could go and argue with him. It nearly hit Shay Given, actually, but that was an accident.
“A fight isn’t just fists. It is what it is. Whatever you can get hold of, you get hold of.
“If you lose your temper, anything goes. But this wasn’t a fight. This was just silly stuff. It was very childish from both of us.
“I was yelling at him and he was yelling at me, but we were mates, basically, so were never going to start throwing punches at each other.
“We ended up wrestling stupidly on the floor. I didn’t know at the time but Bobby was giving a press conference on the other side of the screens from where we were grappling and the press could hear that a kerfuffle was going on.
“Someone went to get the manager and he came in and yelled at everyone to get out and get on the plane, which was waiting at the gate and was ready to board by now.
“I had lost my rag totally by that point. I was saying ‘I’m not going, I’m not getting on the plane, I’m going home to see my missus.’
“Bobby told Carver to get on the plane. He gave him a real rollicking and asked him what the hell he had been doing, confronting me like that. JC trudged off with his head down, like a naughty schoolboy who has just had a telling-off. I was still saying I was going home. I was adamant.
“The manager put his arm round me. ‘Walk with me, son,’” he said.
“So I walked with him and he started asking me about how my kids were, how they were doing at school, how was my missus.
“He phrased all the questions so I had to answer them even though I didn’t feel like saying a word. The next thing I knew I was on the plane. I was thinking ‘how the f*** did I get here?’
“If he’d told me straight that I had to get on the plane, if he’d ordered me to get on, I wouldn’t have got on.”
Bellamy idolised Sir Bobby – there is a reason the Welshman played arguably his best football in a Newcastle jersey.
Bellamy said: “Before games, I made a point of coming out at the back of our team, the last man into the tunnel. Sir Bobby had his own pre-match superstition, which was to make sure he shook every player’s hand.
“So before most games, we’d end up at the back of the tunnel together, having a chat about what lay ahead and the opponents we were facing. He’d stare at their players.
“He’s s*** scared of you already, that one, son,” he’d say. Or it might be, ‘Get him on the turn today, son, and you’ll kill him.’ Or, ‘Look at him, son, he’s not even fit to be on the same pitch as you.’
“I felt like I was the quickest player going, I felt strong, I felt invincible because of him.
“I am 5ft 6in or 5ft 7in tall but I am telling you this: when I put that kit on and I was standing in that tunnel with Bobby Robson, I felt like I was Didier Drogba.”