Robson: 'My One Regret - I Didn't Win A Cup At Newcastle'!

"I played for some fabulous clubs and I played for England. I had 14 years at Ipswich Town as a manager, won things and was very, very happy there.

"Then I got the top job, the best job in the world really. I managed England, I managed England for eight years and we reached the semi-finals of the World Cup.

"Yes, there were some unpleasant things said and written about me, but there isn't a bigger job in world football than managing England, so I'm very happy I did it. Then I went abroad for 10 years and had success in Holland and Portugal.

"Then I hit the jackpot, I was offered the manager's job at Barcelona. How many people can say that? How many people can say they had the biggest international job and the biggest club job in their lives? So many happy times, I've met some fantastic people and I've worked with some of the greatest players all over the world."

"There is still some fight in me yet.

"I'm still going and I'm still strong. I've had my health problems and I'm still fighting them, but I've always been a fighter. After my birthday I have another project to embark on. I'm going to launch a charity to help people in the North East fight cancer and I'm going to raise the money to help the experts help them beat it.

"I never thought I'd get the chance to manage my club and I loved every single day I was in that job.

"It meant the world to me and I believe I did as good a job as I could. I don't have any regrets about my time there. I took the club over when they were bottom of the league and in the five years I was manager we finished in the top five three years running. Three years after I arrived we were playing in the Champions League. Nobody has got near that since I left.

"People say, yes, but you didn't win a trophy. No, we didn't and that's my only regret, the only thing I look back on with a little sadness. I would have loved to have got that piece of silverware and ended the drought, can you imagine what that would have been like?

"As I have to remind people, there aren't many trophies you can win. There are only three domestic ones, the FA Cup, the Carling Cup and the League. Then there are the European ones, but the Champions League was never a realistic one for us when I was there.

"We might have done it you know, we came close, do you remember? We never did as well as I thought we could in the League Cup, I don't know why and the FA Cup is very tough to win, the Big Four dominate it. But for a time, we were in the Big Four, we scared them, don't doubt that for a second.

"I know we scared them because people like Sir Alex Ferguson told me we did, that young team we had, Shearer, Robert, Speed, Solano, Dyer, Bellamy, Jenas and so on.

"It was a quick team, a pacy team and we played good football as well. I think the most frustrating time for me was in the Uefa Cup in my last full season in charge. We'd done well to reach the semi-final and we looked good.

"We were strong and we felt we were going to win. I still think we would have done if it hadn't been for injuries. We drew 0-0 with Marseille at St James's Park, but we were still in it and we thought we had the team to hurt them away from home, hitting them on the break.

"But we lost five big players to injury. We lost Dyer, Woodgate, Bellamy, Jenas and Bowyer. That was too much to cope with."