I thought Bryan Robson was a very good midfielder, though not quite as good as many commentators on the game would have us believe. However, despite being plagued by injuries Robson won many titles, trophies and awards, captained England – for whom he played 90 times – and (for six years) was the most expensive footballer in the country: you don’t achieve any of those things unless you are an excellent footballer.

Like many professional footballers, though, Robson didn’t know when to walk away from the game with dignity, believing that a successful playing career would inevitably be mirrored in management. He spent tens of millions of Steve Gibson’s pounds over seven seasons to enable Middlesbrough to maintain their then-impeccable record of having won no major honours in their history (despite leading them to three cup finals along the way).

It is difficult to recall a trajectory in football that has differed so markedly between, on the one hand, so glittering a playing career and, on the other hand, so dismal a record as a manager: perhaps Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore challenge Robson in the management mediocrity stakes, though they both had the sense to get out of management fairly quickly and stay out.

Robson having overseen relegations at each club he has managed (only avoiding a second relegation with Middlesbrough because Gibson parachuted in Terry Venables as firefighter mid-season and keeping West Brom in the Premiership in his first season despite collecting the fewest number of points of any team ever to survive relegation from the Premiership) and seen his win ratio fall in line with the financial resources available to him, one might imagine no football club chairman would again prove daft enough to entrust their club to the man.

Bryan Robson’s managerial record

Middlesbrough (1994-2001)
Won 127 Lost 101 Drawn 86
Win percentage: 40%
2 promotions to the Premiership (1995, 1998), one relegation (1997)

Bradford (2003-2004)
Won 7 Lost 20 Drawn 1
Win percentage: 25%
Relegated

West Bromwich Albion (2004-2006)
Won 19 Lost 38 Drawn 24
Win percentage: 23%
Relegated

Step forward Sheffield United PLC chairman Kevin McCabe.

(From right to left, Sheffield United PLC chairman Kevin McCabe, Bryan Robson and Sheffield United FC chairman Terry Robinson, whose demeanour suggests he knows how this sorry fiasco will end.)

McCabe says he believes Robson will lead the Blades back to the Premiership within a season. “Bryan is an experienced manager,” McCabe said at yesterday’s press conference to announce the appointment. “We believe he’s the right man to get us back to the Premiership in the shortest possible space of time. It was harder to find anyone better than Bryan.”

He can’t have looked very long or very hard.

On news of Robson’s appointment, William Hill immediately lengthened Sheffield United’s odds of an immediate promotion from 12-1 to 14-1. Have you ever met a destitute bookie?

Football clubs – uniquely, with the sole exception of governments – believe themselves to be above economic theory and that the lack of proper qualifications and/or a decent track record should be no impediment to managerial appointments.

An Observer series a couple of seasons ago called English football “The Game That Ate Itself”; it’s hard to conclude otherwise when men like Robson can still earn from football not just a filthy shilling, but hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.