Past Players Who Played for Your Favourite Team?

Terence Baker Fearlessly Finds Out.

No. 3—Bryan “Pop” Robson

I received a request from New York Flyer Brian Mayor asking for information about Bryan Stanley Robson, who played for West Ham in two stints, the first between 1971 and 1974, the second between 1976 and 1979, which means, despite him being one of our greatest goalscorers, he missed out on playing in our winning FA Cup teams of 1975 and 1980. Brought up in Sunderland, in Northeast England, where he played in those intermittent years, he scored 47 goals during both those West Ham periods, the first in 120 games, the second in 107. He also played for Newcastle, which is Sunderland’s bitterest rivals (fans do not like players who do this, where he helped win Newcastle’s last trophy, a major lack of form for such a huge club. This was the 1969 Fairs Cup, which no longer exists, against a Hungarian team called Ujpest Dozsa, which is just now seeing better days after three decades of slump during the last Communist days and the new days of stumbling democracy. Meanwhile, Brian’s team Grimsby, after valiantly holding on to professional-league status last year, are doomed to be paying in the non-league Conference division next season. Dark days for a number of us.