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Ron Atkinson
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Ronald Franklin Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and (earlier in his managerial career) "Bojangles" (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits. He is perhaps most famous for his idiosyncratic turn of phrase: his utterances have become known as "Big-Ronisms" or "Ronglish" - although in recent times, he has also attracted a lot of controversy over a racist comment broadcast on a TV sports show when he believed he was off the air.
Atkinson, who was born in Liverpool but moved to Birmingham a few weeks after his birth, did not achieve great heights in his playing career.
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Encyclopedia
Ronald Franklin Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and (earlier in his managerial career) "Bojangles" (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits. He is perhaps most famous for his idiosyncratic turn of phrase: his utterances have become known as "Big-Ronisms" or "Ronglish" - although in recent times, he has also attracted a lot of controversy over a racist comment broadcast on a TV sports show when he believed he was off the air.
Playing career
Ron Atkinson, who was born in Liverpool but moved to Birmingham a few weeks after his birth, did not achieve great heights in his playing career. He was originally signed by Aston Villa at the age of 17, but never played a first-team match for them and was transferred to Oxford United in the close season of 1959 on a free transfer. There he played with his younger brother Graham Atkinson. He went on to make over 500 appearances as a wing-half for the club, earning the nickname "The Tank" and scored a total of 14 goals. He was United's captain through their rise from the Southern League to the Second Division, achieved in just six years, from 1962 to 1968. He was the first man to captain a club from the Southern League through three divisions of the Football League.
Managerial career
Kettering Town & Cambridge Utd
After retiring from playing, Atkinson became manager of non-league Kettering Town in 1971, aged only 32. His success there led to a move to the league with Cambridge United, going on to win the then Fourth Division in 1977 and leaving them when they were on the verge of promotion to the Second Division.
West Bromwich Albion
At the start of 1978, Atkinson moved to manage First Division West Bromwich Albion He soon signed black player Brendon Batson from his former club, to play alongside the black pair of Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis. Never before had a team in the top division of English football simultaneously fielded three black players on a regular basis and the Three Degrees, as they became known in reference to the contemporary vocal trio of the same name, challenged the established racism of English football and marked a watershed that allowed a generation of footballers to enter the game who would previously have been excluded by their ethnic background.
Atkinson led West Bromwich Albion to third place in the league in the season 1978–79 and also to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. On 30 December 1978 they achieved a famous 5-3 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. The club were second in the table at the time, only beaten off top spot from Liverpool by goal difference. They finished fourth in 1981, and shortly after this Atkinson became manager of Manchester United on the dismissal of Dave Sexton.
Manchester Utd
Atkinson was very much a manager with charisma and sparkle, quite the opposite to his predecessor (who had taken them to second place in the league in 1980 but never won a major trophy since his appointment in 1977).
In all of his five full seasons with United they did well. In 1981–82 United finished third in the First Division, to qualify for the UEFA Cup. In 1982–83 two appearances at Wembley, one of which was an FA Cup victory against Brighton & Hove Albion, coupled with another third place finish in the league, fuelled speculation that United were back in a big way. In 1983–84, Atkinson's side reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup and finished fourth in the First Division, although their defence of the FA Cup ended at the first hurdle which a shock 2-0 defeat at Third Division AFC Bournemouth. In 1984-85, United again won the FA Cup. However, Atkinson and his team were denied the chance of another European Cup Winners Cup campaign as the Heysel disaster at the European Cup final that year, resulted in an indefinite ban on all English clubs in European competitions (ultimately lasting five years).
In the 1985–86 they won their first 10 games of the league season to build a comfortable lead at the top of the table. However, their form tailed off badly and they again finished fourth. With the ban on English clubs in European competitions continuing, there wasn't even the consolation of a UEFA Cup place.
Although the club won two FA Cups during his tenure, he had spent heavily, paying over £8 million for new signings - which included Bryan Robson, Gordon Strachan and Jesper Olsen. He also brought through young talent such as Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes and Paul McGrath.
He had recouped more than £6 million with the sale of highly-rated players including Ray Wilkins and Mark Hughes. The 1986–87 season opened disastrously and in November 1986 with the club fourth from bottom, Atkinson was sacked. He returned to West Brom in the autumn of 1987 for a year and then had a high-profile move to Atlético Madrid of Spain. Atkinson's tenure at Atlético was quite a turbulent one and despite relative moderate success in terms of league position, a clash of personalities with the then club owner Jesus Gil led to Atkinson being sacked within little over three months (96 days). His right hand man at West Bromwich Albion, Colin Addison, was appointed - much to the dislike of Ron, who at the time in the English media went on record as saying Addison had "stabbed him in the back". They (Atkinson and Addison) never worked again as part of a team following the events of Atlético. His departure to Spain also had an adverse affect on West Bromwich Albion, whose promotion bid dramatically collapsed under new manager Brian Talbot.
Sheffield Wednesday
He was manager of Sheffield Wednesday from February 1989 to June 1991. Although the club were relegated in 1990 to the Second Division, a year later in 1991 he got them promoted back to the First Division. They also won the League Cup by beating Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley. He offended some Sheffield Wednesday fans by saying on 31 May 1991 that he would be staying as manager but a week later leaving to become Aston Villa manager.
Aston Villa
Taking over from Jozef Venglos, he led Aston Villa to second place in the inaugural FA Premier League season in 1992-93 and to victory in the League Cup in 1994, securing (ultimately short-lived) UEFA Cup campaigns for both of these successes.
Despite leading Villa to their first major success since their 1982 European Cup triumph, a mutual disliking between Villa chairman Doug Ellis and Ron that developed from 1992, inevitably resulted in him being sacked on 10 November 1994 following a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Wimbledon - three days after Ellis had given Ron a 'vote of confidence' in the media, stating that Atkinson was one of England's top three football managers. By this stage, an ageing Villa side that had so nearly won the league title 18 months earlier were now among the relegation battlers. He was replaced by Brian Little, who kept Villa in the top flight and built a new younger team.
Coventry City
Shortly after the Villa sacking, he became manager at Coventry City replacing Phil Neal who was purposely and acrimoniously replaced to make way for Atkinson. During his spell as manager of Coventry, he brought in high profile players including Gordon Strachan, Dion Dublin, Noel Whelan and Gary McAllister but they continued to struggle in the Premier League and by November 1996 he had become Director of Football, handing over managerial duties to former player and subesequent assistant boss Gordon Strachan.
Return to Sheffield Wednesday
In November 1997, he returned to Sheffield Wednesday following the sacking of David Pleat. Wednesday had made a poor start to the 1997-98 season, including a 7-2 loss at Blackburn and a 6-1 loss at Manchester United. Under Atkinson, Wednesday's form picked up immediately and they pulled well clear of relegation trouble, but he was not rewarded with a permanent contract. It was deemed (in football and media circles) that this action was an act of revenge by the Wednesday board for the manner in which he had left Wednesday for Villa in 1991, just days after he had gone public in the press pledging his immediate future to Hillsborough.
Nottingham Forest
His last managerial job came with Nottingham Forest, for the final four months of the 1998-99 season. This spell was not a success and at his first home game he even climbed into the wrong dug-out. He also managed to upset many Forest fans following an 8-1 defeat at home to Manchester United, when he stated in an interview after the game that his team had given the fans a "nine-goal thriller".
In a 2007 interview, Pierre van Hooijdonk, who was a Forest player at the time, said he sometimes got the impression the side was managed by Rowan Atkinson. In 1999, having resumed playing for Forest (following a somewhat petulant 'strike' by Pierre van Hooijdonk), Atkinson was quoted as saying that "his (Pierre van Hooijdonk) biggest talent was upsetting his team mates"
Quotes
Atkinson is famous for a number of remarkable quotes. A number of example are: ‘They scored too early.’; ‘Apart from picking the ball out of the net, he hasn’t had to make a save.’ ; ‘That’s not the type of header you want to see your defender make, with his hand.’ ; ‘You don't want to be giving away free kicks in the penalty area.’
Broadcasting career
Atkinson was already working as a pundit for ITV and after leaving management he continued in this role. For a number of years he covered most of the channel's live matches, sometimes as a studio guest, but more often as the "ex-football insider" member of a two-man commentary team. This exposure led to "Ronglish" becoming known to a wider audience. With his permanent suntan and taste for chunky, gaudy jewellery, he was often portrayed as a lovable buffoon in the UK media. Examples of Ronglish includes the adopted footballing phrase "early doors", a phrase that has been a subject of debate in football circles (partly because its precise origin and meaning is unclear). It is credited as one of Ron's most famous and original pundit quips. Another famous line regularly heard during Ron's 1990's ITV football pundit work would be exclaiming in disbelief at a miss, stating "you would have put your mortgage on him (the player) scoring there".
Ron Atkinson's media work came to an abrupt halt on 21 April 2004, when he resigned from ITV after he broadcast a racist remark live on air about the black Chelsea F.C. player Marcel Desailly: believing the microphone to be switched off, he said, "...he [Desailly] is what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick nigger". Although transmission in the UK had finished, the microphone gaffe meant that his comment was broadcast to various countries in the Middle East. He also left his job as a columnist for The Guardian "by mutual agreement" as a result of the comment.
It was not the first time Atkinson had committed a microphone gaffe. His comments about AS Roma player, Francesco Totti were broadcast to amazed German TV viewers. His view that "He actually looks a little twat, that Totti" however received very little criticism from the UK media.
Since the Desailly incident, Atkinson has claimed that the comment was an aberration and that he is not racist, citing in his defence that his West Brom side was the first high-profile British club to have a significant number of black players. This, however, has not diminished the condemnation he has received from anti-racist groups and the public at large, who question whether Atkinson would have resigned had the comment not been accidentally broadcast and note that it was not the first time he had used racist language. In an article published in the Sunday Times on 19 September 2004, Atkinson was referred to as "Racist Ron". A BBC Radio documentary about the "Three Degrees", repeated on 16 May 2004, was cancelled owing to Atkinson's central contributions.
Later in 2004, the Daily Mirror reported how he sparked more hostility among fans by making derogatory remarks about Chinese women, proclaiming that "Chinese women were the unprettiest in the world..." He followed this with a joke by saying the population of China is such as it is because of their lack of knowledge of contraception; all of which he said during a meeting over a meal.
It was reported Atkinson was being brought in to support Iffy Onuora at Swindon Town in December 2005, and Atkinson and the club appeared to confirm this. However it later transpired that Atkinson's role was simply as part of a Sky One documentary about the club being filmed at the County Ground. In late January 2006 Atkinson and Swindon parted company, with Swindon manager Onuora citing interference as the main reason for stopping the documentary from going ahead. Just a week later the cameras turned up at Peterborough United's ground, London Road, to begin filming for the documentary called Big Ron Manager. It is believed Peterborough owner Barry Fry was offered £100,000 to allow the filming to take place. Just three months later the club was thrown into turmoil as caretaker manager Steve Bleasdale resigned just 70 minutes before kick off against Macclesfield Town (22 April 2006) citing interference from a number of people in the running of first team affairs, many believing the documentary involving Ron Atkinson had a major part to play.
Atkinson spent the 2006 World Cup recording an amateur video blog and distributing it through the UK-based video sharing site, SelfcastTV.com. He also provided commentary on the World Cup for the UK digital channel UKTV G2.
Atkinson recently took part in the BBC Two programme Excuse My French. Atkinson, comedian Marcus Brigstocke and television presenter Esther Rantzen were immersed in the French language by staying in a remote town in the Provence region, being compelled to adapt to the French lifestyle and speak the language. His assignment at the end of the course was to provide a match analysis on a football match (Paris Saint-Germain - AS Monaco) in French for a French radio station. Being a complete beginner to the French language, he found the experience a considerable challenge, although he succeeded. The assignment was made more difficult by the fact that the match concerned was a dull goalless draw, leaving him with little to talk about.
He briefly made a return to television, appearing as a pundit on Football Italia broadcast on Bravo. Since Serie A coverage has been shown on Channel 5 however, Atkinson has not been invited as a pundit.
Director of Football
On 23 January 2007 Atkinson returned to Kettering Town, the club he had managed more than 30 years previously, as Director of Football. However it was announced on 19 April 2007 that he had left the post at the Conference North club following his disapproval over the sacking of manager Morell Maison.
On 18 October 2007, it was announced that the 68-year-old Atkinson would take over as consultant at Halesowen Town, where he would assist Morell Maison who would be appointed manager. Atkinson, apparently, left his role at Halesowen in order to pursue business interests.
Honours
As a player
Oxford United
As a manager
Kettering Town
Cambridge United
Manchester United
West Bromwich Albion
Sheffield Wednesday
Aston Villa
Managerial statistics
External links
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