Ron Atkinson

Infobox Football biography
playername = Ron Atkinson


fullname = Ronald Franklin Atkinson
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1939|3|18|df=y
cityofbirth = Liverpool
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Retired
position = Wing half (retired)
youthyears =
youthclubs = Aston Villa
years = 1959–1971
clubs = Oxford United
caps(goals) = 383 (14)
manageryears = 1971–1974
1974–1978
1978–1981
1981–1986
1987–1988
1988–1989
1989–1991
1991–1994
1995–1996
1997–1998
1999
2006
managerclubs = Kettering Town
Cambridge United
West Bromwich Albion
Manchester United
West Bromwich Albion
Atlético Madrid
Sheffield Wednesday
Aston Villa
Coventry City
Sheffield Wednesday
Nottingham Forest
Peterborough United (caretaker)

Ronald Franklin Atkinson, [cite book | last = Matthews | first = Tony | title = The Who's Who of West Bromwich Albion | publisher = Breedon Books | year = 2005 | pages = p. 260 | isbn = 1-85983-474-4] [The PlayerHistory.com database quotes his middle name as Frederick] 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

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. 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.

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 seasons with United they did well. In 1981–82 United finished third in the First Division. 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. In 1985 United again won the FA Cup and ten successive victories in the 1985–86 season put him well ahead of the pack. However, their form tailed off badly and they again finished fourth.

Although the club won two FA Cups during his tenure, he had spent heavily, paying over £8 million for new signings. He had recouped more than £6 million with the sale of players, amongst whom were 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 Brom, 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.

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.

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. Despite leading Villa to their first major success since lifting the European Cup, a mutual disliking between Villa chairman Doug Ellis and Ron that developed from 1992, inevitably resulted in him being sacked. Big Ron was sacked on November 10 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. 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.

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 retaliation by the Wednesday board in revenge for the manner in which Ron left Wednesday for Villa in 1991, four days after he had gone public in the press pledging his immediate future to Hillsborough.

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". [cite news
first = Russell
last = Thomas
title = Solskjaer shows plenty in reserve
url = http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,22403,00.html
publisher = The Guardian
date = 2007-02-06
accessdate = 2007-10-07 ] 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"

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.’ [cite web
url = http://www.footballisscience.com/htm/quotes.html
title = Ron Atkinson Quotes
accessdate = 2008-10-03
publisher = footballisscience.com]

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 end on April 21, 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" [cite web
url = http://www.longballgame.com/atkinson.htm
title = Ron Atkinson Quotes
accessdate = 2007-10-07
publisher = longballgame.com] 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. [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/brianreade/tm_method=full%26objectid=14934626%26siteid=94762-name_page.html Words of condemnation for Big Ron] ]

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. [cite news
first = Colin
last = Stewart
title = Atkinson back on television with fly-on-the-wall role at Swindon
url = http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport.cfm?id=2470262005
publisher = The Scotsman
date = 2005-12-29
accessdate = 2007-10-07 ] 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 believedWho|date=July 2007 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". [cite web
title = Cinq Jours En Juillet
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2006/07/20/france_excuse_my_french_2006_feature.shtml
accessdate = 2007-10-07
publisher = bbc.co.uk ] 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 January 23, 2007 Atkinson returned to Kettering Town, the club he had managed more than 30 years previously, as Director of Football. [cite news
title = Atkinson named as Kettering chief
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/6290623.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-01-23
accessdate = 2007-10-07 ] However it was announced on April 19, 2007 that he had left the post at the Conference North club following his disapproval over the sacking of manager Morell Maison. [cite news
title = Atkinson leaves post at Kettering
url = http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6571045.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-04-19
accessdate = 2007-10-07 ]

On October 18, 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. Halesowen, who, when Atkinson took over, were 13th in the Southern League, three divisions below the Football League, now lie 2nd with hopes of automatic promotion. As of February 2008, Atkinson has, apparently, left his role at Halesowen in order to pursue business interests.

Honours

As a player

Oxford United
*Southern League Premier Division runner-up: 1959–60
*Southern League Premier Division Title winner: 1960–61, 1961–62
*Fourth Division third place: 1964–65
*Third Division Title winner: 1967–68

As a manager

Kettering Town
*Southern League Division One North Title winner: 1971–72
*Southern League Premier Division Title winner: 1972–73
*Northants Senior Cup winner: 1972–73

Cambridge United
*Fourth Division Title winner: 1976–77
*Third Division runner-up: 1977–78

Manchester United
*FA Charity Shield winner: 1983
*FA Cup winner: 1983, 1985

West Bromwich Albion
*Birmingham Senior Cup winner: 1988

Sheffield Wednesday
*Rumbelows Cup winner: 1990–91

Aston Villa
*Coca-Cola Cup winner: 1993–94

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*soccerbase (manager)|id=1082|name=Ron Atkinson
* [http://www.longballgame.com/atkinson.htm Ron Atkinson Quotes]
* [http://www.dangerhere.com/ronglish.htm Ronglish]
* [http://www.laughfc.co.uk/stories/story.php?id=177 Even more Big Ron quotes]
* [http://football.guardian.co.uk/FA_Cup/Story/0,5764,490427,00.html Example of Big Ron's chalkboard (text only) in the "Guardian"]

Persondata
NAME=Atkinson, Ron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Atkinson, Ronald Franklin; Big Ron
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Football player, manager and commentator
DATE OF BIRTH=March 18, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH=Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=