United had a big squad but the constant stream of injuries disrupted the team and the sale of Mark Hughes to Barcelona in the summer put even more pressure on Atkinson. Atkinson needed his team to come flying out of the blocks; instead they suffered a false start and never recovered.
Losing at Arsenal was hardly cause for concern , but the next two matches at Old Trafford indicated that all was not well. Worse was to follow.
United ended the losing run with a draw at Leicester and then Robson returned after 11 weeks out to inspire the team to a win over Southampton at Old Trafford. But there was to be no great revival for Atkinson or his team. They lost at Watford and then set off for a chastening day at Goodison Park.
When a team has two penalties saved in as many minutes, perhaps the writing is on the wall. Things could only get better and United embarked on a five-match unbeaten run in the league, drawing away at leaders Nottingham Forest, beating Sheffield Wednesday and Luton, before a draw live on ITV in the Manchester derby.
A disappointing draw at home against Coventry followed, with Robson limping off with a hamstring strain to leave the team even more exposed. I regret making the comments and I apologise to anyone I may have offended. An ITV spokesman said: "We do not in any way condone the comments in question which were not broadcast as part of ITV's coverage but were made in an off-air conversation after the game. We have discussed the situation with Ron Atkinson, who is devastated and very sorry for any offence caused by his comments.
He immediately offered his resignation which we have accepted. Atkinson's career in football began when he joined Aston Villa in After failing to make the grade at the club he supported as a boy, he was transferred to Oxford United, where - as a muscular centre half - he became known as the "Tank", playing more than times for the club.
As a manager, successful spells with lower league sides Kettering and Cambridge led to him being offered the job at West Bromwich Albion in Lessons were paused, and this was about Atkinson being sacked, not Ferguson arriving. Maybe if the teacher was into football he'd pass an opinion, but if he wasn't he'd say you're here to study, and not talk abut frivolous things like football. Ferguson would become defined by his seemingly pathological aversion to frivolity: a trait which distinguished him somewhat from Atkinson, in the eyes of United chairman Martin Edwards.
Form was poor when Atkinson was sacked: United sat in the bottom four in the First Division having played a third of their league games. Yet he had some credit in the bank. His team had faltered in the league the year previous, but were, at times, electric: they won their first ten games of the season, before a lack of squad depth exacerbated injuries to first-teamers allowed Dalglish's Liverpool recover from a slow start to capture the title with the remorseless inevitability Ferguson would make his own.
Atkinson was also popular, and his two FA Cups along with regular top four finishes made him United's most successful manager since Matt Busby. So while results were poor when Atkinson was sacked, the mood among United supporters would be nothing like the hysteria that would meet a poor run these days: expectations were not as high; United had been relegated the decade previous and hadn't won the league since Speaking in the past to Martin Edwards [then the United chairman], he felt that Ron Atkinson had taken his eye off the ball during the World Cup of that summer.
He was in Mexico, when Martin Edwards felt he should have been in Manchester. Regardless of his record, that sort of terminology is just simply out of bounds. A spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Obviously it's disappointing that someone in a position such as his should make those comments, but he has resigned. He has done the right thing. TV pundit Ron Atkinson sacked for racist remark.
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