One is naturally wary of making leaps like this (not having consulted the relevant people) but we are confident that Bobby Robson is the only former Barcelona manager to have appeared on Liveline.
Barcelona did of course have an Irish manager but Patrick O'Connell died in 1959, a year before Radio Teilifis Eireann was founded. To our knowledge, neither Pep Guardiola or Johan Cruyff have appeared, unless either are gifted impersonators with a penchant for prank calling Irish radio stations.
Bobby's Liveline appearance was one of the low-points of Steve Staunton's traumatic reign as Ireland football manager.
Ireland had just hammered San Marino 2-1 away and the press and the wider general public were baying for blood. Most of those who watched the San Marino game in pubs have stories to tell recalling the half subversive/half ironic groans of disappointment that greeted Stephen Ireland's late winner. In those fraught times, the only pleasure in following Ireland came in venting one's fury after the game.
Amazingly, Staunton's contention that Ireland are 'usually strong in March' failed to reassure the press corps (though we now know how right he was) and prompted the normally quiet Late Late Show audience to burst into cruel laughter the following Friday (with a general election coming up they had a body language expert on, examining the media performances of public figures and Staunton's post-match press conference was played).
Such was the background to Bobby's Liveline appearance.
It resembled one of those Dail committee inquisitions that bankers are called to attend, and was almost as long. At one hour and fifteen minutes, it would have been quite a trial for a 74 year old man recovering from a recent operation on a brain tumour which had left him paralysed on his left-hand side.
However, Bobby batted manfully, dealing with the various 1980s West Indies style dingers tossed his way.
Most of the callers aimed their ire at the FAI for sending Bobby to the crease in the first place. One caller named Michael used the rather clumsy phrase 'wimpy cowards' to describe the country's footballing hierarchy.
Bobby did receive the odd bit of criticism himself. One unsympathetic caller was enraged by his description of Steve Finnan as 'the Liverpool player' - we say description, he actually used the phrase 'the Liverpool player' as a substitute for Finnan's name, rather than in an adjectival fashion to describe him further, leading some to assume that he did not know what Finnan's name was
Although this particular weakness never harmed Jack Charlton too much, Bobby rejected the suggestion. Robson did, later on, refer to Staunton's predecessor as 'John Kerr' but this is eminently forgiveable in the circumstances.
On a more amiable note, seasoned caller Brush Shields offered his opinions on team selection, which Bobby received with admirable patience.
Duffy then grew curiously obsessed with how Robson organised numbers in his phone. This has been previously logged by Mary Hannigan of the Irish Times.
Duffy: Have you got Steve on speed dial?"
Robson: "Of course I've got Stephen's number, yes."
Duffy: "But do you have it on speed dial?"
Robson: "I can ring him up whenever I want to, but there was no need to do it . . ."
Duffy: "No need to do it?! When we're being humiliated and embarrassed!"
Robson, though, pointed out that "you can't be ringing every minute" during games.
It was a somewhat tedious exchange. Duffy's quaint obsession with the admittedly punchy phrase 'speed dial' suggested he was angling for a tabloid style headline containing those words. Presumably, Bobby had Staunton saved under 'Steve' or 'Stan' and phoned him semi-regularly.
One is almost inclined to forget that Bobby Robson - one of English football's finest ever managers, a man whose long, storied career took in spells at Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and Porto, not to mention the English national team - was an employee of the FAI for a couple of years.
As was customary back in the Celtic Tiger days, John Delaney promised a 'world class manager' when Brian Kerr was sacked in late 2005 (Everything was world class this and that around that time). When the time came to unveil the curious Staunton/Robson arrangement this had morphed into 'world class management team'.
His official title was 'International football consultant' (IFC) and his presence at the opening press conference prompted Steve Staunton to coin his 'I'm the gaffer' catchphrase.
The media received the appointment coolly and Robson's appointment was criticised for signalling a lack of confidence in the actual gaffer. The exact nature of his role caused confusion.
Late in 2006, Bobby Robson told journalists that he originally intended to help 'by working with Kevin (MacDonald) on the training pitch'.
But as Kevin Kilbane recalls, his influence was curtailed by events.
He was more of a mentor to Stan. Obviously, he was going to have some sort of influence over the team as well, but he quickly became very ill, didn't he...
Robson, who received his first cancer diagnosis back in 1992, was struck down with serious illness not once, but twice in the year of 2006. Shortly after the appointment, he needed an operation to remove a tumour from his lung which was spotted in an x-ray after an ironically fortuitous skiing accident.
Then, in late August, just as Ireland's qualifying campaign was to begin in Stuttgart, a tumour was discovered in his brain. He breezily pointed out that it could be 'easily removed' and was 'the size of a grape' but the resultant operation left him paralysed on his left hand side.
Despite all this, his most significant intervention as Ireland's international football consultant was still to come.
Following the infamous night in Nicosia on 7th October 2006, there were frantic calls to oust Staunton before any more damage was done. Four days later, Ireland were to face Czech Republic in Lansdowne.
In extraordinary circumstances, it was determined that Robson should speak to the players on his own. The day before the Czech Republic match, Robson gave a talk to the players in the team hotel in Portmarnock. For Kilbane, this is the contribution he remembers most vividly.
He was quite ill at the time and I think he'd lost the use of his left arm or his right arm. He did a speech around that when Stan was under severe pressure after that Cyprus game after we'd lost 5-2 and we were coming into Dublin to play the Czech Republic.
And he did a really good speech for us the night before that game, basically, it was more telling us to get our finger out but basically saying the manager is under pressure here and we need to produce something for him.
Ireland achieved what was a rousing 1-1 draw in the circumstances the following night.
This was but a brief show of defiance before Ireland, Staunton, Delaney and the whole bally lot of them were turfed back into the fire after Ireland's cheek-reddening 2-1 win in Serravalle. The following day, Bobby made his memorable Liveline debut.
Robson was fit enough to be around the team for the high point of Steve Staunton's reign. Ireland claimed two valuable 1-0 wins in Croke Park in March.
The first of these, over Wales, received a rather sniffy response from the football public, as if a 1-0 win over Wales was something we were entitled to turn up our nose at. But then, people were minded to look dimly at Staunton and the team's efforts at that point.
The victory over Slovakia a few days later generated real approval and was the undoubted high point of Staunton's reign. The prospect of Ireland qualifying for Euro 2008 became plausible again, if not exactly probable.
Bobby and Stan jointly addressed the press conference after the Slovakia game. The empathetic sorts in the media who had defended Staunton after the earlier humiliations were at their loudest at the end of March 2007.
But that was to be the last time Stan and Bobby would team up to face the press.
Cruel fate had decided that after seven months, Bobby had gone long enough without an adverse health diagnosis. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2007, the disease that would eventually take his life two years later.
This didn't stop him rocking up for Ireland's final group game against Wales that November. Stan had been mutually consented after another rough night against Cyprus, this time in Croke Park. Don Givens was now the manager but the international football consultant was still in position. Ireland drew 2-2 in Cardiff in a match they should have won though interest was fairly minimal.
It was announced that Bobby would assist the FAI in the search for a new manager, though he was unable to put in the legwork and the three man committee of Ray Houghton, Don Givens and Don Howe eventually proffered the name of Giovanni Trapattoni the following year.
Against the odds, he remained within the FAI's employ into the early months of 2008, assisting with 'the development of elite young players' in Abbotstown.
While the FAI were occasionally mocked for continually appointing a patently unwell man to various roles, these announcements also spoke of Robson's touching determination to be involved in football at some level, despite his rapidly failing health.
The period in which Bobby Robson was involved with Ireland is not fondly remembered but little or no blame was ever attached to him. In fact, he was ferociously committed to Ireland and Kilbane remembers him being 'desperate' to carry out the role to which he was appointed. His reaction to Ireland's rousing opening goal against Czech Republic was testament to that.
I've seen a lot of important goals, even scored some over the years but I don't think I'd ever seen one that got such an emotional response as the one Kevin Kilbane scored against the Czech Republic. Even I jumped out of my chair and I'm bloody paralysed.
See also: 'Drawing With A Mountain Top' - Ireland's 0-0 Draw With Liechtenstein
See also: 20 Steps To Becoming A More Authentic Irish Sports Fan
