Source: Daily_Mail
Guardiola and Mourinho pay their respects to Sir Bobby Robson, a truly Special One
It was days before the Champions League final against Manchester United and Pep Guardiola had just finished an exhausting 80-minute Press conference conducted in four languages.
Though eager to get away, when the Barcelona coach heard that Sir Bobby Robson had written to his former player to wish him luck in the forthcoming final, he made sure he had time to chat.
Guardiola, now the most exalted coach in world football after leading Barcelona to their treble of Spanish League, Cup and European Cup, was touched by the gesture.
'I'm going to make sure I read this immediately,' he told me with an engaging smile, before inquiring of Sir Bobby's health and insisting on passing on his best wishes. 'He is a very good man and a great coach.'
Sir Bobby had said, as he handed over his letter: 'You tell Pep that if he's half as good a manager as he was a player for me, then he'll do OK.' Guardiola smiled again when the tribute was relayed.
The same response was always forthcoming from Jose Mourinho whenever Sir Bobby's name was mentioned. The tension would ease, the bravado would drop for a moment and a smile would come over the face of the Special One.
For Mourinho, as he acknowledges, owes everything to Sir Bobby, the man who gave his interpreter a break in Portuguese football and set him on the path to becoming the iconic coach he is today.
And it is a measure of his magnitude that even now the two most distinguished and admired coaches of the younger generation, in Guardiola and Mourinho, were forged by Sir Bobby.
While the master never won the European Cup, a feat which both of his apprentices have already achieved, he had a profound influence upon them.
Yesterday Guardiola reflected again on Robson. 'It was a privilege to spend a year with him. It was a fantastic year. He was a very experienced trainer with clear ideas,' he said. In reality, they were ideas with which Guardiola sometimes disagreed. Sir Bobby himself would often laugh and confide that his most profound memory of Guardiola was of the arguments they had over tactics.
Guardiola, who had been schooled by Dutch maestro Johan Cruyff, insisted that 4-3-3was the way to play; Sir Bobby, English to the bone, would not be moved from his 4-4-2.
Nevertheless, in that year the pair established a bond that overcame their initial differences Guardiola had been disappointed when Sir Bobby failed to make him captain on his arrival in 1996 and blossomed over the years.
Mourinho, too, had his disagreements with Robson. He was annoyed when his mentor took him to task in the pages of this newspaper, writing an open letter to the then Chelsea manager, urging him to become truly great by toning down his combative antics.
Yet, with Sir Bobby, all was soon forgiven and forgotten and Mourinho could not have been more generous in his tributes.
'Bobby Robson is one of those people who will never die, not just for what he did in his career but for everything that he gave to those who, like me, were lucky to know him and walk by his side,' said the current Inter coach.
'It was hard for me [to hear the news] because I didn't want to think that he was dying, it wasn't that image of Bobby Robson that I wanted to keep forever. I wanted, and I will always keep it with me, the Bobby Robson of every day, a man with an extraordinary passion for life and football, with extraordinary enthusiasm.'
That two young managers, both so completely obsessed with modern tactics and systems, were schooled by Sir Bobby is a supreme irony for those who would lambast him as England manager for not being open to tactical innovations.
'To be honest, he had no real interest in tactics,' said former Dutch international Stan Valckx, who played with him at PSV Eindhoven, followed him to Sporting Lisbon and spent last weekend with him at the charity football match Sir Bobby had organised.
'Some people think tactics win games but the point about Bobby was he was such an admired manager that every player was prepared to go the extra mile for him,' said Valckx. 'That was the difference between him and other coaches. The most important thing for him was that we didn't let the team down, which meant running, fighting, giving everything.'
They are qualities which now permeate the teams of Guardiola and Mourinho. This weekend, all around the world, some of the great names of football will be revisiting their own memories of Sir Bobby.
'He was loved all over the globe,' added Valckx. 'And I don't think he had any enemies, which is very rare in this crazy world of football.'
Mourinho and Guardiola would both concur. Sir Bobby never ceased to be relevant and the fact that two such acclaimed young coaches owe so much to him is a fitting tribute to a remarkable man.
