News about Ron Atkinson

JOE BERNSTEIN: For Sir Alex Ferguson, FA Cup glory was the springboard for success. Other Manchester United managers found winning the competition signalled their demise. Tommy Docherty was sacked when lifting the Cup was considered no defence for having an affair with the wife of his club physio. Ron Atkinson lost his job the year after Wembley glory because he was no closer to ending United's long wait to be champions. Most alarmingly for Erik ten Hag, compatriot Louis van Gaal learned his fate just minutes after his United team beat Crystal Palace in 2016. His 'crime' had been to fail to qualify for the Champions League - something that will haunt his fellow Dutchman, whose side are 13 points behind fourth-place Aston Villa. Publicly, Ten Hag insists he'll be at Old Trafford next season, just as Van Gaal had done up to the point he was replaced by Jose Mourinho. But in the build-up to facing Coventry City in Sunday's semi-final, Ten Hag unwittingly outlined why his future is in such jeopardy.

CHRIS WHEELER: Old Trafford has seen some classic games in recent times, and Manchester United's dramatic FA Cup quarter-final victory over Liverpool on Sunday was up there with the best of them. United's cameback to defeat their bitter rivals 4-3, with a 121st-minute goal from Amad Diallo, who was running late in normal time and again in extra-time. I was screaming and I couldn't hear my voice, so you get a sense of what the noise was like for us on the pitch,' said captain Bruno Fernandes afterwards.'

West Bromwich Albion is also haunted by a feeling of anxiety as they look forward to resurrecting one of England's most formidable rivalries against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. For the first three years, Albion's supporters have been worried about the city's very existence. However, although this 146-year-old team is still in danger, there is growing hope that Albion will be sold in the coming weeks to bring an end to one of the most troubling chapters in modern history. Shilen Patel, a US businessman, is expected to be the front-runner to take over. However, there is still some mystery and worry before the agreement is concluded.

Manchester United lost 3-0 at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, their 35th defeat at home after Sir Alex Ferguson retired as the club's manager in 2013. According to Squawka, Erik ten Hag's side has now suffered more losses at home since Ferguson left the team than the legendary manager suffered in his 21-year tenure as head of the Red Devils. Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League trophies with the Red Devils, only lost 34 times at home during his coaching tenure with the club.

ANDY GRAY: Every birthday and Christmas, I'd be tearing open the wrapping paper to find the kit of Rangers, my heroes. I remember watching them win cup finals in front of 130,000 at Hampden as a kid. It was thrilling to see a player wearing their royal blue shirt at almost 33 years old, particularly against St Mirren, where I scored my first goal, a header of course.

Chelsea Managing Chelsea may have thrown anyone into a muddle these days, but Mauricio Pochettino saw the funny in him as he changed his Atkinsons' fortunes and assumed Big Ron was the comedian who played Mr Bean. He was answering a question about his first return to Tottenham, as well as whether he feared his auto-pilot would step in and lead him to the wrong dressing room or the wrong bench, a blunder made by veteran boss Ron Atkinson when he was first appointed manager of Nottingham Forest. 'Ah, Mr Bean,' nodded Pochettino before realizing from the room's reaction that he may be on the wrong track.' 'Ron Atkinson is the actor, yes?'

CHRIS WHEELER: After another humiliating loss on Tuesday night, Erik ten Hag's head bobbed down the Old Trafford tunnel after another devastating loss. As Galatasaray supporters celebrated a major victory, he heard the boos from Manchester United fans and the whiff of flares in his nostrils. As Ten Hag arrived in the home dressing room, he was greeted by an all-too-familiar sight: dejected United players slumped in their positions for the sixth time in ten games this season. Another defeat, another inquest. This is United's worst start to a season since Sir Alex Ferguson was fired 37 years ago by Ron Atkinson.

CHRIS WHEELER: Manchester United lost 4-0 at Brentford in Erik ten Hag's second game as boss last year, it seemed like their whole world was crumbling. United are facing Brentford on Saturday at Old Trafford, and the current crisis looks much bigger. The club has been in a shaky start since Alex Ferguson replaced Ron Atkinson 37 years ago. There are boos from the terraces, players are weak on morale, and Ten Hag urgently needs to stop the bleeding before it gets out of control.

Trevor Francis, the first-ever £1 million player, has died on Friday. His conversion from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest was historic at the time, as a pre-cursor to the exorbitant sums we see today. So how has the transfer record in Britain evolved down the years and risen to the peaks we see today?

On Sunday afternoon, Brighton and Manchester United will face off in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley Stadium, 40 years after the match in 1983. On that day, the Seagulls, who were also struggling in the bottom of Division One at the time, forced United to a replay after a 2-2 draw in the initial final, before Ron Atkinson's side won the second game 4-0. Bryan Robson, a two-time replay winner, told Mail Sport's Simon Jones about United's victory that helped them win their fifth of what has since evolved to become 12 FA Cup victories.

It's usually shortened to four words by the football lexicon. "And Smith must score...' the commentary of Peter Jones seconds before Manchester United goalkeeper Gary Bailey saved Gordon Smith late in extra time to force a replay.' Those four words were used as shorthand when Brighton barely won the Cup and became the name of a fanzine as the club fell into disarray, and were later modified for Smith's autobiography. Ex teammate Gary Stevens remarks, 'Gordon's still dined out on it.' It's made him a fortune.' Nevertheless, the 1983 Cup final was also missing so much more. Helicopter rides, cream-colored shoes, unhavened participants in headbands and High Court appearances. A delectable Wembley goal, an early flush of Captain Marvel, record-breaking, and leg breakers.

Like a growing number of investors, I'm considering gold, but it takes me all around town – from a coin shop to London's historic jewellery district Hatton Garden. The increasing demand for gold has pushed the price of the precious metal to new heights. In the midst of the new financial crisis, its popularity has increased. In the midst of financial turmoil, it has been traditionally seen as a safe haven because it can't be meddling central banks or governments. Buying gold, on the other hand, isn't straightforward, as I quickly discover.

The 63-year-old Irishman spent seven years with the Red Devils, scoring 12 goals in 203 appearances. "Sir Alex welcomed me into the room and then told "We'd like you to avoid playing football," McGrath said. Simplified as that.' He also said that they were able to pay me £100,000 to abandon playing football entirely and go back to Ireland.' He lifted the FA Cup under Ron Atkinson in 1985, but he signed for Villa in 1989.

OLIVER HOLT AT WEMBLEY: The hunger and fervour of Newcastle's support felt like a throwback to a different time in this football era of increasing corporatism. The hordes' black and white stripes were boosted in giant stripes at Wembley Stadium, where they carried huge banners proclaimed 'Howay the lads' and "We are United." It seemed that a pirate army had invaded the football academy and smuggered it away. This was their chance to storm the barricades of the old order after so many years in the wilderness. However, this was a revolt that smashed the palace's gates and then failed to go any further. Newcastle had the energy and stamina, but Manchester United had the class. Last week, the Conquerors of Barcelona in the Europa League dispersed their opponents mercifully and clinically. This was their first trophy in six years, so it was no small thing, but they did have much more valuable awards than the Carabao Cup.

Ron Atkinson recalls it as more of a screech than a roar. I've never heard anything like it at any other football stadium,' Big Ron, now 83, told Sportsmail this week. It's still the best atmosphere he's seen at Old Trafford for Bryan Robson, his captain that night. 'The fans had even climbed the floodlights to get a view,' Robson says. 'I managed to score early on, and the audience was so loud it seemed as if the pitch was trembling.'

MATT BARLOW: The country ground came to a halt with the train workers and lorry drivers on strike, schools closed, inflation soared, politics collapsing, and football gorged on a gluttony of spending. This was February 1979 and the dog days of Discontent's winter. Nottingham Forest paid Birmingham City £1.18 million for Trevor Francis, less than a month after West Bromwich Albion had been the first to crack the £500,000 barrier. Chelsea's new US owners have returned to action, while football remains immune from the nation's highest cost of living crisis, as train drivers strike, schools close, and inflation rises. Some things don't change.

CRAIG HOPE: Save for Brazil, are there any colours more synonymous with a World Cup than those of Holland and Argentina? The feelings invoked are personal to some, but not mine. For me, it was one of the last truly memorable World Cup matches (pictured). Influencing such sentiment is the belief that, as opposed to nearly every tournament's charmless, identikit bowls, Marseille's majestic Stade Velodrome is immediately identifiable. Qatar's stadiums may look stunning from the outside, but every game has taken place at the same central venue, according to a television viewer at least. The best World Cups have always been about the exoticism of the location - the shadows, patterns of the grass, architectural distinction, camera angle, and the seat colors. Think about the Azteca, San Siro, Giants Stadium. Consider Stade Velodrome. And there was a sensory overload of chaos, color, and entertainment in 1998's sunny Saturday afternoon.

Daley was part of a great Villa team that twice finished in the league under Graham Taylor and Ron Atkinson, as well as beating Alex Ferguson's mighty Manchester United at Wembley to lift the League Cup in 1994. It's a big contrast to their recent work, which is just outside the relegation zone on goal difference and looking for their eighth manager in eight years after firing Steven Gerrard on Thursday night. He's saddened by Gerrard's death after the final 3-0 loss at Craven Cottage, but couldn't see any other alternative having witnessed the widespread dissatisfaction all season.