Jackie was just straightforward, stopped players who thought they could play. And talked a good game. I enjoyed him."
Now, Bobby is the 'Irish' one. The specifics of his role in the new international regime under Steve Staunton have yet to established. His absence of ego means they may never have to be. Robson may still be one of the most respected coaches in the international game, but he will defer to Staunton at every necessary juncture.
They are still in the process of learning one another's qualities and foibles. But he likes what he sees. Especially, his sense of trust in the mechanics of the past. His desire to reheat some old, forgotten values.
"I think, in the modern game, he seems to be a bit of a chip off the old block," observes Robson. "Old school maybe. He has his principles, he has his virtues, he has his qualities. He seems to me to be proper for management, proper for coaching.
"I can see those values in Steve. I think he'll be old-fashioned and that's a quality. You can't beat those standards."
Robson knows some of what Staunton is facing. He knows from his earliest days in management (at Fulham) what it is to become boss in a dressing-room with men who've been your team-mates. In Robson's case, it proved difficult.
"It'll be easier for Steve because he's going to meet these players a maximum of ten times in a season," he says. "When you're a club manager, you meet them every day. So, when I went back that time, I was Bobby to the lads. Or Robbo to some.
"Suddenly you're their boss and you're apart. It'll be different for Stan. He has conducted himself properly in the game and that stands him in good stead. Because the players know him, they've seen him as a proper football guy, a proper person. I don't think it's going to be a problem."
He enjoyed the mischief and bartering of the European Championship draw in Frankfurt and the subsequent setting of the fixtures list, a process from which the Irish delegation emerged with contented weariness.
"I remember saying if we could get 40 per cent of what we wanted, take it," he recalls. "In actual fact, we got more than that. I would say we got 70 per cent. It didn't fall into our laps. We did a lot of work beforehand on what we would like.
"We had a plan and it really fell into place. I mean nobody wanted to play Cyprus in June, nobody. There were six countries in there, all with the same idea of what they wanted. But we did well in the end, I tell you."
If he has a vision of his role with Ireland, it is one that reaches back into his past. As England manager, he used Don Howe as an assistant, "a buffer" as he puts it. The two played together at West Bromwich Albion and, under persuasion from Walter Winterbottom, took themselves to coaching courses at Oxford University.
"You need that buffer," he argues. "Don was an extremely good coach as well. In many ways, we were indelibly linked."
Staunton's efforts to recreate the homeliness of past regimes have met with Robson's approval. Though he himself is unfamiliar with the intimate detail of what life as an Irish player was like under Jack and, subsequently, Mick McCarthy, he sees virtue in spontaneity and lightness.
"It's extremely important to create contentment," argues Robson. "Footballers have to be happy and comfortable. That's where you get your team spirit and morale, players getting to know each other and like each other, trust each other. They have to want to be with each other.
"That plays an enormous role in a football team. It's not about going out at night. You just have to gel with them. Because you get cliques in groups. If you have a harmonious group, you get enormous repayment. And the smallest thing can influence that.
"Bottom line, players have to enjoy training though. It's got to be purposeful, meaningful. I find players actually like discipline. You find a lot of players are indisciplined. But, if the people around them are indisciplined, they actually hate it. It's a curious thing."
The process of familiarising himself with Ireland's relatively shallow pool of talent is well under way. He knows the perception. Finishing fourth in the World Cup qualifiers wasn't the brightest of auguries for a team now asked to finish in the top two of a group comprising the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Cyprus and San Marino.
The senior pros like Given, Finnan, O'Brien (Andy), Dunne, Duff, Kilbane and Robbie Keane hold no mystery. But the young guns are unproven. He is excited by the search ahead.
He likes Stephen Ireland and is encouraged by Stuart Pearce's view that he has "a great chance" of making a senior international. But the two players he becomes most energised by are Reading's Kevin Doyle and Sunderland's Liam Lawrence. "I really like Doyle," he says. "He's come along in a short time, I tell you. And I went to see Lawrence the other day. I rang Stan up and told him I quite liked the lad.
"They were playing Tottenham and he ran out of legs in the second-half, they actually took him off. Daryl Murphy came on and scored. But Lawrence did alright. He had nice technique, he saw the clever pass, the one that could damage and hurt people. I quite liked him. From where he was a year ago because he came from Mansfield to where he is now, he's an improved player."
He recounts the motto of Ron Greenwood that, to properly judge a player, you had to see him in the first team. "Never let a player go unless you've seen him properly," was Greenwood's theory.
One player helped Robson put that theory into profitable practice. He still chuckles about it today. That player was Brian Talbot.
"If you had given me £8,000 for him when he was in the Ipswich reserves, I'd have snatched your hand off," recalls Robson. "I remember I decided to have a look at him in a first team game at Burnley. I didn't think he was ready, but I said I'd have a look. And he was the best player on the pitch.
"He actually played at the higher level better than he did in the reserves. I sold him for £450,000 about two years later to Arsenal. With that money, I bought Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren. His performance against people like Liam Brady in the '78 FA Cup final convinced Terry Neill to sign him.
"In one year, he just soared. So you never know what these players might do for Ireland. It comes down to what's inside them. Attitude. Grasping the opportunity. Not being afraid.
"Because some kids just can't cut it. They wobble. It's too much for them. They don't want the ball because they might make a mistake. They're the ones you don't want. The ones who are different in training. I mean you see great players on Tuesday morning and he's nowhere to be seen on the Saturday. So we've got to find out about one or two of these kids. But I have to say, the lad at Reading looks very useful indeed."
Business begins next week, of course, with Sweden's arrival in Dublin. But the qualifiers will define the marriage. Staunton has already told him about Croke Park and the emotion of what's coming. "He told me it's going to be just incredible," smiles Robson.
"I can't see that from afar. But what I see is it's amazing what you can do if you have the right attitude. And the courage. Look at Colchester against Chelsea the other night. You can close big gaps in football. We shouldn't be afraid of anybody.
"For now though, we've got to get from the players that they want to play for their country. That's the most important thing. They've got to want to come. Because we're dead if they don't."
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