BRYAN ROBSON knows what it is like to manage a squad ravaged by a virus — and he is still bitter that his Middlesbrough team were relegated as a result.
Now the former England and Manchester United skipper has questioned if Covid is being used as an excuse for Premier League clubs to call off games without punishment.
It was 25 years ago as manager of Boro that Robson’s squad was also decimated by illness, in this case flu.
He could not put a team together and Boro believed they had been given permission to postpone their game with Blackburn.
But in the end they were still docked three points for not turning up at Ewood Park and were even called a “Sunday League team” by Rovers caretaker manager Tony Parkes.
Insult was added to injury as Boro went on to suffer the ultimate punishment of relegation.
Robson remains upset about what he believes was the unfairness of it all.
He told SunSport: “We had 24 players down ill.
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“You look at games being called off now and it just makes the memory of what happened in 1996 all the more annoying.
“You have to trust each club to a certain degree and we all know how devastating coronavirus can be. But it also still looks like an easy one to say you can’t play just because of Covid when other players might be missing for other reasons.
“There needs to be far stricter rules on why games are being called off but can you keep checking on every one of the 92 clubs in the top four divisions?
“It’s impossible and it seems that so many teams are calling games off and nothing gets done.
“Compare the situation to ours at Middlesbrough when we had a genuine problem.
“We still got done three points and that is what sent us down.
“I got us back up the next season but that three-point penalty cost the club momentum and it cost me star players like Juninho, Emerson and Fabrizio Ravanelli.
“They all left because the World Cup was coming up and they told me that they feared they wouldn’t get into their national teams because they would be playing in the Championship.
“Had we not bounced back straight away the whole structure of the club would have been put in danger.
“And to some extent Middlesbrough have never really got back to where chairman Steve Gibson and me had the club then.”
Robson rankles at the memory of how Boro became the first and, so far, only Prem club to be deducted points for not fulfilling a fixture.
He said: “By the Friday morning before the Blackburn game we realised that the virus had ripped right through the club.
“We didn’t have enough players bar a handful of YTS lads who could have filled in.
“Me and my assistant Viv Anderson were still registered as players and we would have played but I had a hamstring injury and he had a calf problem.
“Our chief executive Keith Lamb was trying everything to get in touch with the right people to get the game called off but the Premier League was just hopeless.
“We found out later that some of those who might have been able to better help us were on the golf course.”
Robson had only 12 available players, three of whom were goalkeepers and Lamb tried to ring Premier League chief executive Rick Parry but was told he was out.
General secretary Mike Foster was on holiday but finally Lamb spoke with an official who reported as a Mr Cooke.
Lamb claims he was told that Prem rules allowed for postponements for a “just cause” and he then informed the league and Blackburn that he was calling off the game.
But when Parry and Prem officials got back to their desks Boro were told rules had, in fact, been broken.
Had Blackburn been given a win Robson’s men would have avoided the drop to the Championship but instead Boro were deducted those three points.
Following draws in their last two games of the season — first in the re-arranged fixture at Ewood Park, then at Leeds — they went down by two points in 19th place.
Robson added: “What happened to us wouldn’t happen today — at least not with coronavirus.
“In fact I remember there was a Spanish club around the same time who called off a LaLiga game.
“They had been hit by a virus and nothing became of their postponement.
“Of course Covid is something completely different and it’s right that as much care as possible has to be taken.
“But what happened to us and the problems we faced back in 1996 just didn’t seem to matter.
“The treatment we got was unfair then. And more than ever it feels that way now.”
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