Sir Bobby Robson
Fulham legend 1950 - 56 & 1962 - 67
Anyone recall what shirt number the great man wore at Fulham?
They didn't have assigned shirt numbers in his day. It depended on what position he played. At Inside Right he'd wear 8 and at left half 6.
For some reason or another I always picture him in a number 8 shirt, Stevens wore 7, Robson 8, Jezzard 9, Haynes 10, Chamberlain 11.
I always had the impression he played Right half, hence - Number 4
I owuld have said 4 or 8
...in his first spell at Fulham he wore the number 8 almost exclusively, in his second spell its tarted with 8, went on to 6 for two seasons ending in the number 4...
Quote from: CorkedHat on June 24, 2011, 09:45:56 AM
For some reason or another I always picture him in a number 8 shirt, Stevens wore 7, Robson 8, Jezzard 9, Haynes 10, Chamberlain 11.
Surprised you didn't list Reg Stratton with his number... :dft012: :hook:
According to Bobby's biography, 'Farewell but not goodbye', he states the following:
" I was a wing half - a midfield player who combined midfield with attack... My better half was attacking. ... under the system you had two wingers and a center forward, with two inside forwards. Then you had two wing-halves, two full-backs and a center half."
So, in the natural order of numbers, that would place him as either 4 or 6 I believe, as 5 was the center half, 2 and 3 the Full backs, and the forward line was 7,8,9,10,11, in the standard 2-3-5 formation of those days. That almost fits in with LBs actual recollection of seeing him play :005:
As CH has said, he started in the No 8 (Inside Right) shirt and was considered as the second centre forward (striker) along side Beddy Jezzard. With Johnny Haynes as the creator. Arthur Stevens was on the right wing and Charlie Mitten on the left. What you have to remember the whole line up (with the exeption of Goalkeeper was different then.
You had two full backs who were Nos 2 (right back) and 3 (left back). Three defenders, no. 4 was right half, no.5 was centre half and no. 6 was left halh. Then the five front men. No. 7 was right wing, no. 8 was inside right, no. 9 was centre forward, no 10 was inside left and no. 11 was left wing. There were no subs and the wing halfs took the throw ins. The wingers took the corners.
Quote from: Logicalman on June 24, 2011, 11:15:49 AM
That almost fits in with LBs actual recollection of seeing him play :005:
...cheeky wotsit - mind you I did actually see him play, and was there to see him play his final game for Fulham...
many thanks gents
In his second spell with Fulham (and believe me he was magnificent) he wore the numbers much as suggested above but on Mar 30, 1964 in the away match to Manure he wore no.5/played centre half in a game that Bobby Keetch wasn't available for and no.10/inside left against Leicester on 15 Dec 1962 and Manure on 26 Dec 1962. 092.gif
In about 1970 we changed the way the players were numbered into 4-4-2 so the left back wore 5 and the centre backs 3 and 4.
I was at an away match at Sheffield United and this completely bemused 2 old boys who spent the whole match loudly wondering why our CH was playing LB and the LB, CH. Cunning tactics that they couldn't quite work out.
