Robson the fall guy for Boro's mediocrity

A lone figure recently, Robson now has to start again

BBC Sport Online's Andrew Warshaw believes Bryan Robson's Riverside departure will either make or break the former England captain.

With his resigned, hangdog expression and his almost monotonous delivery, Bryan Robson never looked comfortable running the Riverside ship.

Although he technically retained his title as team manager after the arrival of Terry Venables in December, 2000, you didn't need a university degree to predict that Robbo was surviving on borrowed time.

The former England captain may have been the first choice to front Boro's lofty ambitions back in 1994.

But when the fans turned against him after he failed to deliver, despite being given a fortune to spend, his great friend, Boro chairman Steve Gibson, eventually had no choice but to make a change.

Gibson couldn't keep giving Robson the thumbs up

In order not to hurt Robson's fierce pride, Gibson and Venables issued all kinds of rhetoric-filled statements last season praising Robson's contribution.

After all, he had taken Boro to Wembley three times and twice achieved promotion, feats many would argue was about as successful as Boro could get.

Football, however, is about winning and about consistency. Boro lost all three finals and suffered one ignominious relegation in between.

Even when they came back up to the Premiership for the second time under Robson, Gibson and the supporters gave him one more chance.

Haunted look

The feeling was that Robson must have learned from the experience and would now regroup and push on to better and bigger things.

It never happened. Instead, Robson took on the the haunted look of someone who had lost the plot. That, sadly, will remain the symbol of his seven years in the north-east.

Yet Gibson's decision finally to part company with Robson cannot have been taken without a good deal of pain.

The Boro chairman had shown commendable loyalty in sticking by his colleague through good times and bad. Sacking him must have hurt like mad.

As long as Venables was at the Riverside, Robson's job was safe

As long as Venables, with whom Robson had struck up such a special relationship at international level, remained at the Riverside, there was a job for the man they called Captain Marvel.

But when the former England manager decided not to remain, Robson's fate was effectively sealed.

Being booed by the fans at the last home game of the season was surely the deepest cut of all.

Great players often make mediocre managers. Robson, who won 90 England caps, isn't the first and won't be the last leader to come up short when trying to transfer those same skills off the pitch.

Committed coach

But does he have qualities? Of course he does. Like so many who have played the game at the highest level, Robson is a committed coach and has plenty of enthusiasm to back it up.

Otherwise, he would not have been retained with the England squad for so long.

Wherever he goes now, it must be to a club that wants a coach, not a manager.

A big-name club where he can work quietly, efficiently and intelligently without having to face the constant glare of the media.

It could be a hard road back for Captain Marvel. Alternatively, it could be the making of him.