Between 1969 and 1982, Ipswich Town was one of the best football teams in England. Bobby Robson oversaw 13 years of unparalleled success at Portman Road, winning the FA Cup and UEFA Cup, while narrowly missing out on the old First Division title.
Ipswich was far from a fashionable club back then. When Robson took over, he did so as a young manager needing a break, having been sacked by Fulham. While Sir Alf Ramsey had won the league in 1962, four years before leading England to the World Cup, there had been very little continuation of his success – Robson therefore had to rebuild, but he had a clean slate to do so.
40 years ago today…
Ipswich Town won the UEFA Cup!! 🏆pic.twitter.com/aZtu9VtNFg
— TheTractorBoys (@TheTractorBoys_) May 20, 2021
The outlook is not too dissimilar today, although Ipswich has fallen a lot further over a longer period of time. It was 20 years ago this year that the Tractor Boys were relegated from the Premier League, having been promoted back to the top flight just two years prior and finished fifth, once again qualifying for the UEFA Cup under George Burley. Like many clubs over a similar period, they fell into lower league obscurity, first struggling to get out of the Championship and then, in 2019, slipping down to League One, where they’ve been ever since.
They have another fix up job on their hands, but under former Manchester United assistant Kieran McKenna, who took over last year, there are green shoots of recovery. Six games into the new season, they are unbeaten and sit second. It is a long way back to the top, but punching above their weight is in Ipswich’s history.
Charlie Woods is a former Ipswich player, youth coach and chief scout – his working and personal relationship with Robson remained constant until his death aged 76 in 2009. Woods tells Compare.Bet the inside story of their rise, and whether they can do so again.
“Bobby had a great team,” Woods says. “There weren’t many weaknesses in it, from Paul Cooper in goal through to the centre backs to the fullbacks, with Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen sitting a little bit deeper and Paul Mariner, Alan Brazil and Eric Gates up front. He had some very good players. There were experienced players like Mick Mills, a stalwart of the team who played for England, and Alan Hunter, and he mixed it with younger players.
“He worked with them and found the system he wanted. It just worked.”
Woods was the youth coach and part of Robson’s three-man strong staff, meaning key players in the side for many years including Brazil and Terry Butcher, were first nurtured by him. But such was the togetherness under the manager, he was aware of their development well in advance of him being ready to play for his team.
“Before we had a training ground, our three teams used to train beside each other on the stadium grounds, outside Portman Road. All the big clubs had big training grounds, we didn’t. Every chance Bobby got to see the youth side, he took. He saw the players himself and made up his own mind. The modern day manager has a bigger job looking after the first team, I don’t know if there are any who would take that much interest in the youth today.
“I remember he came in one day and told us we should be proud because we’d won four games on the trot and every player in the team was home grown. Cooper was injured so Laurie Sivell was in goal. He was a local boy.
“Bobby was the captain of a good ship. There was me, Cyril Lee and Bobby Ferguson on his staff. He would allow you your opinion, but when it came to the big decisions, of course he made them. When you put the team sheet up and you sign it, you’ve got to stick with your choice, but he always made sure the players who weren’t playing remained involved.”
In 1982, Robson left for England, but he didn’t want to leave Woods worried for his future.
“I got a call from the chairman and he said they’d offer me a seven-year contract because Bobby told them they couldn’t lose me. He’d constructed that. You wouldn’t get that now, barely even then. They honoured it, as well.
“Bobby Ferguson replaced him as manager, and it was pretty easy in terms of the transition because it was the same players. I was his assistant for four years, the foundations were there. Bobby Ferguson was a very good coach, and then John Duncan followed him before John Lyle. John Lyle was great to work for, we got promotion to the Premier League in 1994 and then George Burley eventually came in after Paul Goddard.”
Burley was something of a Robson disciple having played under him, and he kept Woods on as scout. Nearly two decades after his departure, his footprint was still clear within the club. Having been relegated in their top flight campaign in 1995, they regained their Premier League status four years later. By then, Woods had moved onto Tottenham before reuniting with Robson at Newcastle United, but Burley’s work paid off with a fifth placed finish and another season in Europe.
🏆 Kieran McKenna has been nominated for the @SkyBetLeagueOne Manager of the Month award for August.
👇 #itfc
— Ipswich Town FC (@IpswichTown) September 7, 2022
“With George, you could see there was something there,” Woods continues. “You could sense it. The team was set up in a similar vein to Bobby and the training was very similar, but he had his own way of doing things.”
But eventually, a second relegation followed in 2003, and Ipswich hasn’t been seen in the Premier League since. It has been a tough point in their history recently, but Woods has been impressed with McKenna’s work, and would desperately like to see the club return to the top table soon.
“No team has a divine right to be in the Premier League. We obviously got relegated before; we weren’t a bad team, we just didn’t get the results. If you don’t win enough games, that’s what happens.
“It has been a tough time for Ipswich, but they are a great club. With Bobby (Robson), we weren’t getting good gates, our best was maybe 30,000. Now, Ipswich are getting 27,000 in the third division. The young manager is doing well by all accounts, he’s playing attractive football and there is money behind them, they’ve made improvements to the stadium. Everything is looking up.
“Long may it continue. It is a special club. It will always be hard to match what Bobby did, but Alf Ramsey did well, then came Bobby. Let’s hope McKenna keeps up this rate of success, because it would be nice to see them back up there.”
