If I'd been able to put the collection together in one go, say over two years, we'd have had a special team, most wouldn't stay. One or two glory seasons and they were off. To them, the north-east was too far out. They wanted to be with the big hitters.

Bryan Robson

It wasn't going to be our day on the night.

Bryan Robson

soccer night

Winning the Championship is like taking a 26-year ball and chain from around our legs. Now we can go forward, and hopefully dominate English football for the next 10 years, like Liverpool did.

Bryan Robson

winning football soccer

All the stuff about being a drinking club, or having players who were not good enough, I treat as rubbish.

Bryan Robson

not-good-enough player drinking

When you beat Arsenal, they are a good three points.

Bryan Robson

beats england three

We've got to be outstanding when we start and let other people chase against us.

Bryan Robson

outstanding people

We're going to start the game at nil-nil and go out and try to get some goals.

Bryan Robson

goal games trying

If we played like that every week, we wouldn't be so inconsistent.

Bryan Robson

week football soccer

The first time I saw Giggsy, he was playing for Salford Boys against United's apprentices. He was thin and wiry but he just glided past four of our apprentices as if they weren't even there, then he put the ball in the back of the net. I just thought 'This kid's an absolute natural'

Bryan Robson

boys kids past

And at the end of the season you can only do as well as what you have done

Bryan Robson

done ends soccer

This is the one-off occasion and you can't get any bigger occasion than that

Bryan Robson

funny-soccer bigger soccer

In a way, certain sections of the media always wanted to knock me because I had captained my country and been skipper at Old Trafford. It was all a bit odd really.

Bryan Robson

media country way

As far as I'm concerned, that is the end of the matter. We have a big game against Birmingham on Saturday and that is where our focus lies.

Bryan Robson

focus games lying

Paolo di Canio is capable of scoring the goal he scored.

Bryan Robson

capable goal soccer

In the end, a small section of the crowd, maybe 2,000 to 3,000, turned against me. And that was it. Inside the club they know your best intentions, but the minority shout louder than the rest.

Bryan Robson

crowds minorities technology

A lot of people, some of them close to me as well, have said that I sacrificed myself by doing what I did in bringing Terry on board. I didn't see it that way.

Bryan Robson

myself me people way

Nobody is that thick-skinned that it doesn't hurt you. Still, you always know what happens in football. I have got used to criticism, I suppose, having been high profile with England and Man U.

Bryan Robson

you man hurt football

They wanted to jump on their own bandwagon. Bobby Charlton had never made it as a manager. Bobby Moore hadn't either. I think they never stopped trying to put me in the same category. That was the road they went down with me.

Bryan Robson

road down think me

Last season when things weren't working out, I thought we needed a different voice around the place.

Bryan Robson

place thought things voice

I had to make a change. It was no slight on my staff either. We'd all been at Boro for seven years. But certain players had got too familiar with the set-up. I had to turn it round. Terry was the one man I could think of to do it. So I went for him.

Bryan Robson

turn think man change

Could I have walked out then? If I had, Terry wouldn't have accepted the job.

Bryan Robson

then could out job