Battling hard-case midfielder wants to join the Millers - but as manager...

Last updated : 09 March 2007 By Davidr
Roberts as Clyde boss
The Star reports today that former Tottenham Hotspur and England midfielder Graham Roberts would like to be manager of Rotherham United. So would I, but that doesn't mean I should be given the job.

Still, given he's bothered to make his interest known - and especially given that he's not Ian Atkins or Colin Todd - it's worth having a look at his history in the game. And it might not be as unimpressive as you might think. But, then again, it might be.

Being hard as nails as a player is no guide to managerial style (see Harford, Mick, as an example), but if it were, Roberts would be the right recipe. A bona fide Tottenham Hotspur legend, he was the sort of midfielder that is now effectively outlawed (i.e. one that tackled very very hard and never ever shirked a challenge), but who could play a bit too. Six England caps show his pedigree (after all, you don't get England caps for nothing, do you? What's that? Michael Ricketts? Stewart Downing? Oh.).

As a manager, Roberts can include some of the top clubs in Europe as being amongst those he has never been involved with. Unlike his playing days, his career in the dug-out is a whistlestop tour of the parts of the footballing world that glamour forgot. His 13 year career has taken in stints at Enfield Town, Chesham, Slough Town , Hertford, Boreham Wood, Braintree Town and Carshalton Athletic. He hasn't lasted more than a two years at any of them, but he does now how to work with no funds.

His two biggest jobs have been at Yeovil Town and Clyde FC in Scotland.

He took over at Yeovil in 1995, at a time when the club was rock bottom of the Conference, playing rubbish football and very near to going bust. Know any clubs in that sort of position? A ruthless clear out of experienced and long serving players saw the club's wage bill slashed and them nearly bounce back at the first attempt. He took them up the season after and guided them to mid-table the season after that.

There then followed fall outs with the board, favourite players picked come what may, others ostracised seemingly forever, even an arrest for violent disorder at a FA Cup match v Taunton (he was charged and found not guilty).

Life was certainly eventful, but his reputation as a manager was on the up. Portsmouth sniffed around him. He said he'd "walk to Portsmouth" (Yeovil fans loved that - he'd refused to move house to Yeovil).

What cost him his job at Huish Park was a way with words that has hampered elsewhere. On the eve of their FA Cup tie with Stevenage, he sent Newcastle United a fax saying he hoped they won and pointing out that not everyone in the Conference was "an arsehole". That cost him his job and he went off to coach in Dubai.

He did well at Clyde. Arriving - as at Yeovil - at a club on its uppers, with two players under contract and a wage bill of £200,000 to play with, he announced that he was going to get them promoted and placed an ad in the local paper asking for players to trial for the squad. 1000 did, 25 got selected and, amazingly, they finished in the top 3 in the Scottish Second Division, beat Celtic 2-1 at home in the Scottish Cup and took Rangers to extra time at Ibrox. Not bad for man not even on the list of candidates for the job or even offered an interview, but who turned up anyway and got the job on the back of the force of his personality.

Everything went wrong this summer. A pre-season tour to Canada ended in tatters, with allegations of racism and anti-semitism flying around. Joe Miller, his assistant manager and a man who Roberts had once said he'd "trust with his life", said that he was "sickened" by what had gone on. A disciplinary panel met, Roberts was sacked and he hasn't worked since.

So, a dour journeyman he isn't. Larger than life, loved and hated in equal measure, with a side to him that isn't entirely pleasant, but an ability to produce successful sides with no resources at all and in the least impressive of situations. But not in the English professional leagues. At least, not yet. Will he get the chance with us?

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