Ron Atkinson

Ron Atkinson

Personal information
Full name	Ron Atkinson
Position(s)	Wing-half

Ronald Franklin Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" (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", the most famous of which is the term "early doors" (English: early), which has worked its way into the English vernacular - 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

Atkinson, born in Liverpool, 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". He was United's captain through their rise from the Southern League to the Second Division, achieved in just seven seasons. 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. 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 F.C.. 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 an English team simultaneously fielded three black players 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 before catching the eye of Manchester United, one of England's biggest clubs. In June 1981 he became their manager. After the dull years of Dave Sexton, United appointed a manager with charisma and sparkle. Sexton had replaced a larger than life character in Tommy Docherty and once again United went for flamboyance. In all of his seasons with the Reds, United 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. This spell lasted a little over three months (96 days).

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 guided them back to promotion. 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 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 1993 FA Premier League and to League Cup victory in 1994. However, he was sacked on 10 November 1994. After this he became, for a spell, director of football at Coventry City.

His last managerial job came with Nottingham Forest, who he briefly managed in 1999, fairly unsuccessfully, once climbing 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.

Later 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 pundit, 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.

This changed on 21 April, 2004, when Atkinson resigned from ITV after he was caught making 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 saying 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/acting manager 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 was apparently set to take the job of coaching Trinidad & Tobago for the 2006 World Cup. However captain Dwight Yorke and his teammates voiced their disapproval of the move due to the Desailly incident, and Leo Beenhakker was appointed instead. Instead, 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.

Despite the racial slurs that have so blighted his late career, Atkinson recently took part in the BBC 2 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 has since made a return to football commentary and can be heard presenting on Football Italia.According to The Times there have been stories of an extra-marital affair in recent months.

On January 23, 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 April 19, 2007 that he had left the post at the Conference North club following his disapproval over the sacking of manager Morell Maison.

Some "Ronglish" terms

• early doors: early
• lollipop: a trick performed by a player, often a winger, consisting of passing the foot over the ball in an attempt to fool an opposition defender (from rhyming slang "lollipop stick" - "trick")
• amusement arcade: a skillful but ineffective player
• reducer: a firm tackle made early in the game to reduce a skilled player's contribution
• Hollywood ball: an overambitious pass
• spotter's badge: plaudit given to a player who has made an accurate, insightful pass to an unmarked player, often leading to an attempt on goal
• little eyebrows: a header made which glances off the player's forehead intentionally
• bit of a crowd situation: when many players are present in one area of the field

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Kettering Town		1971	1974
Cambridge United		November 22 1974	January 12 1978	146	68	36	42	46.57
West Bromwich Albion		January 12 1978	June 30 1981	159	70	36	53	44.02
Manchester United		June 1 1981	November 6 1986	280	140	65	75	50.00
West Bromwich Albion		September 3 1987	October 12 1988	53	15	23	15	28.30
Atlético Madrid		1988	1989
Sheffield Wednesday		February 14 1989	June 6 1991	118	49	34	35	41.52
Aston Villa		July 7 1991	November 10 1994	178	77	56	45	43.25
Coventry City		February 15 1995	November 5 1996	74	19	28	27	25.67
Sheffield Wednesday		November 14 1997	May 17 1998	27	9	11	7	33.33
Nottingham Forest		January 11 1999	May 16 1999	16	4	10	2	25.00

External links

• Ron Atkinson management career statistics at Soccerbase
• Ron Atkinson Quotes
• Ronglish
• Even more Big Ron quotes
• Example of Big Ron's chalkboard (text only) in the Guardian

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