Michael Robinson

Robinson scored 13 goals in 36 games for Preston in the Second Division only 20 years of age. Malcolm Allison at first division Manchester City was impressed by his talent and bought him for a considerable fee of £750,000. Expectations were high but Robinson failed to live up to them and was sold to Brighton only one year later for £400,000. Robinson's career was on the rise again at Brighton with 43 goals in 133 appearances and featured in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the FA Cup final, losing 4-0 in the replay. When Brighton were relegated in the 1982/83 season Seville, Manchester United and Newcastle showed interest in Robinson but once Liverpool came knocking there was only one destination for the boyhood red. Joe Fagan was patient with his new signing when Robinson didn't score in his first nine games. He eventually scored two against in a 5-0 victory over Odense Boldklub in the first round of the European Cup and went on to score a hat-trick in the League against West Ham two weeks later. Robinson credits Fagan's psychological ploy on the morning of the Odense game to his upturn in fortune: "Ronnie Moran says: "'The boss wants to see you.' I remember walking down the corridor to Joe Fagan's office thinking, 'Well, that's it, I'm not playing.' When I got there, Joe said, 'Michael lad, I was making a cup of tea this morning and my wife was reading the Echo and saying I was going to leave you out.' 'And I was worried about that because you're worth your weight in gold.' 'Before I go and talk to the press I want you to see the team I'm going to give them.' He handed me a piece of paper with the numbers 1 to 11 blank apart from no 10, where it said Michael Robinson. 'That's the team, laddie.' 'You and 10 more.' That night I scored twice." However, Robinson didn't get regularly on the scoresheet for the rest of the season and he didn't play in the last ten fixtures as Liverpool retained their domestic Championship. He had been a Wembley substitute in the all-Merseyside League Cup final but didn't figure in the Maine Road replay three days later. 1983/84 proved in the end to be an exciting season for Robinson as it culminated in a substitute appearance in the European Cup final in Rome.

Robinson was by his own admission not very skilful and could have been in better physical shape. Even though he was always going to fade in comparison playing with Europe's most lethal striker it did have its advantages: "Ian Rush made me look brilliant in the air," Robinson confesses. "When I jumped up and headed, the ball would always go to Rushie. He could read my body; the way I jumped up Ian would deduce where the ball would go. He worked it out before I had. Rush never knew which bloody knife or fork to use, but on the pitch he was a genius." Robinson's second season was an anti-climax and he only made seven starts before he was transferred to Queens Park Rangers in late December 1984. Robinson was in QPR's line-up when they drew 2-2 with Liverpool in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals at Anfield. QPR won had their home game 1-0 and progressed to the final where they lost 3-0 to Oxford. After scoring six goals in 58 matches in three years for Rangers, Robinson tried his luck in the Spanish League with Osasuna where he stayed two-and-a-half years and enjoyed the company of his former teammate, Sammy Lee, who had joined six months following Robinson's arrival. Robinson remained in Spain and has made a very good living as a respected and knowledgeable football analyst on his own TV show within the Spanish television network. In December 2018 Robinson announced that he had been diagnosed with an advanced form of melanoma skin cancer and sadly he lost his fight on 28 April 2020.