Stewart Ian Robson (born 6 November 1964) is an English former football player and TV and radio football pundit. He played for

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...

where he was their player of the season in 1988, and

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

. After his footballing career ended he took on a role as a TV and radio pundit for Arsenal TV until 2012,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, TalkSPORT and

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Broad ...

Career

Arsenal

Born in

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It i ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, he was educated at

Alleyn Court Prep School Alleyn Court Prep School is a co-educational day preparatory school in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex for children up to age 11. History The school was founded in 1904 by Theodore Wilcox and first opened in September of that year. It was owned by the ...

in Westcliff on Sea and Brentwood School. Robson joined

as a schoolboy in 1978. He made his debut soon after his 17th birthday, on 5 December 1981 against

, and became a regular player in the Arsenal side under manager Terry Neill and his eventual successor

Don Howe Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his pl ...

. Robson showed great promise as a young footballer, both in his versatility (although he usually played in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

, he was equally adept in

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

as full back or centre back) and his competitiveness; he was an enthusiastic runner and tackler. He was the Arsenal's 1985 Player of the Year, and made the England senior squad. Then an injury in the cup tie against

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

on 25 January 1986 wrecked his season. He was out for over two months with

groin In human anatomy, the groin (the adjective is ''inguinal'', as in inguinal canal) is the junctional area (also known as the inguinal region) between the abdomen and the thigh on either side of the pubic bone. This is also known as the medial co ...

trouble, and missed his England call up, and that probably cost him a place in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, and was on the stand by-list. After the arrival of George Graham as manager in May 1986, Robson found himself out of the Arsenal side, only playing five matches of the 1986–87 season, before losing his place to Steve Williams. Leaving in January 1987, he had played 186 matches for Arsenal, scoring 21 goals.

West Ham United

He was sold to West Ham United in January 1987 for £700,000. His time with West Ham was plagued with injuries, particularly to his pelvis. Manager John Lyall later revealed that Robson had been on the treatment table at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

when he had signed him and he was rarely fully fit for the Hammers. His first West Ham game was on 24 January 1987 in a 3–1 away win at Coventry City. He remained a regular in the Hammers' first team for two and a half years, and

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

for 1988. However, lost his place after they were relegated in 1989, playing only eight league games in the following two years following a succession of injuries to his pelvic area. His last game was a 6–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

defeat of

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alde ...

on 16 January 1991.

Coventry City

In March 1991,

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 cap ...

signed Robson for

on a free transfer. He helped them stay in the First Division and become founder members of the

FA Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

. Robson went on to make 57 league appearances for the Sky Blues, but once again, injury ruined his spell at the club; he suffered a bad knee injury playing his old club Arsenal at the start of the 1993–94 season. In the summer of 1995, Robson announced his retirement citing a history of injuries; he had just spent the entire season sidelined due to injury.

Coaching career

Robson later joined Wimbledon as a youth coach, eventually moving up the ranks to become reserve team manager and then first-team coach until leaving in December 2001. In 2003, he spent a short spell as first-team coach and as caretaker manager at

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

between 25 March 2003 and 18 April 2003. In 2004, he joined Rushden & Diamonds as technical director of football. Robson also played cricket for Coventry and for North Warwickshire.

Media career

Robson has teamed up with

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competitions. ...

as the commentary duo for the non-UK international feed of the FA Cup and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. He worked for Arsenal TV as co-commentator. He commentated for

for the 2012 African Cup Of Nations. He has also appeared on

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British Independent National Radio, National radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and ...

's Rock'n'Roll Football alongside Jim Proudfoot. Robson is a regular contributor on the football podcast released by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' in conjunction with their weekly football supplement The Game. He has also presented on TalkSPORT. He also works for

as a co-commentator for UEFA Champions League,

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

, and

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

. For the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting rig ...

and

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, Robson partnered with

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as the lead association football commentator for ESPN (US). Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC ...

and with Ian Darke on Euro 2020 for

's coverage in the United States. He now serves as the lead co-commentator for

and EFL matches on ESPN alongside Champion. He also commentates on

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

and

for ESPN with Rob Palmer and

Derek Rae Derek Rae (born 1967) is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Li ...

. Robson has been consistently critical of former Arsenal manager

Arsène Wenger Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (; born 22 October 1949) is a French former football manager and player who is currently serving as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development. He was the manager of Arsenal from 1996 to 2018, where he was the l ...

. Robson also regularly appears on

ESPN FC ESPN FC (formerly ESPN SoccerNet) is a website and a U.S. television studio program covering soccer that is broadcast daily over the streaming service ESPN+. ESPN FC's origin was a website owned by ESPN Inc. Originally established in 1995 as ...

, which airs on

in the US and on

in the UK. In 2021, Robson became the primary co-commentator of the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

video game, '' FIFA 22''.

Managerial statistics

Honours

* Arsenal Player of the Season: 1984−85 * Football League First Division Team of the Year: 1985–86 *West Ham United FC Player of the Year: 1988 *Coventry City FC Player of the Year: 1992

References

External links

Stewart Robson – West Ham United FC – Football-Heroes.netStewart Robson – Arsenal FC – Football-Heroes.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robson, Stewart 1964 births Living people English footballers Association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players People from Billericay Premier League players England under-21 international footballers People educated at Alleyn Court School People educated at Brentwood School, Essex English association football commentators English radio presenters The Times people Southend United F.C. managers English Football League managers Southend United F.C. non-playing staff English football managers