Julen Lopetegui aiming to channel the spirit of his former boss Sir Bobby Robson as under-pressure West Ham manager takes strugglers to Newcastle

The statue of Sir Bobby Robson stands proudly outside the south-west corner of St James’ Park, the bronze figure of a man looking out over the city he adored.

“It’s the noise, the passion, the sense of belonging, the pride in your city,” Robson famously wrote about what it meant to support a club like Newcastle. “It’s a little boy climbing up the steps of the stadium for the first time, grabbing his father’s hand, staring at that sacred patch of grass below him and, without being able to help it, falls in love.”

Because Robson fell in love with Newcastle, and Newcastle fell in love with him.

So when 50,000 supporters shuffle past Robson’s statue on Monday evening, many will look up to the last manager before Eddie Howe who took Newcastle to the Champions League and remember the man and the memories.

This time, however, it won’t just be the people in black and white who remember him. That includes the man sitting in the dugout across from the one who once filled Robson with passion and hope.

Few have influenced West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui as much as Robson. The former goalkeeper played under Robson at Barcelona and started the second leg of their Spanish Super Cup victory over Atletico Madrid.

West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui played under Robson at Barcelona between 1996 and 1997

Newcastle’s Eddie Howe’s side are aiming for their fourth straight win in the Premier League

“Bobby was a gentleman,” Lopetegui says. ‘One kind of person you love. We all loved him. During this time, Jose Mourinho was his second coach. I remember Bobby with great fondness. A nice person who was always polite and always helped us. He was important to me. He was a key to me. He helped me a lot.

“He was special because he was very, very smart in the way he dealt with problems. He was very steadfast. Very sturdy. But in the same way, he also took care of the way he managed all the players. To me he was very intelligent, a psychologist, in the way he handled all the pressure.

‘I knew how much he loved Newcastle. I knew all this. I played in Newcastle after this, I saw the statue. He deserved this.’

That second leg was the only match Lopetegui started for Robson. One of the braver reporters in the room at West Ham’s training ground suggests that Lopetegui may not have had the best game either, as Barcelona lost 3-1 but still won 6-5.

“Who won,” Lopetegui asks in response. “We won the cup, didn’t we?”

However, Lopetegui’s lack of games under Robson gave him the best spot to watch one of the game’s legendary managers in action.

“I spent a lot of time on the bench, very close to him, so maybe I started to think a little bit as a coach at this point.”

It wasn’t just Lopetegui who felt it. A reporter pulls up the second stage teams on his laptop and Lopetegui drags it over to him. Crouching over the screen, the now animated Spaniard pokes his finger along the Barcelona line-up: ‘Coach! Coach! Coach!’

Lopetegui won the Supercopa de Espana with Barcelona in 1996 while Robson was manager

All but one of the starting players, and both substitutes, took the lead. The other, Gheorge Popescu, opened a football school. Among the names: Laurent Blanc, Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola. Mourinho was his right-hand man.

That was the impact of Sir Bobby Robson.

“I always say that every coach brings experience from your entire life,” says Lopetegui. ‘You always have a lot of experience with coaches that you have had in the past. After each design you create your own style. I was certainly very proud to be managed by Bobby.”

Although Robson also won the European Cup Winner’s Cup and the Copa del Rey during his season at Barcelona, ​​he never quite earned the respect he deserved, paralyzed by the impossible task of taking over from Johan Cruyff. As such, there was criticism of Robson’s playing style.

“Robson had more heart,” said his Bulgarian striker Hristo Stoichkov. ‘Johan wanted to play more football. Robson wanted to play football, but hard and with heart and soul.’

Lopetegui knows what it feels like to have your style criticized. While he has hardly been a manager in David Moyes who was true to the principles of Total Football at West Ham, he has followed a man who delivered a European trophy and so far has struggled to convey style or substance. Fourteenth in the table with only three wins in eleven games with little identity or philosophy. The pressure continues to increase.

Speculation during the international break suggested the Spaniard had just two games to save his job, starting at Newcastle on Monday night and then at home to Arsenal on Saturday. The hierarchy has started looking at replacements.

So things need to change, and quickly.

He is under heavy pressure as West Ham are in fourteenth place in the Premier League after eleven games

Before the Hammers’ defeat at Nottingham Forest in early November, West Ham had not played a Premier League match outside London.

Now they face the daunting prospect of a Monday night under the lights of St James’ Park against a Newcastle side who have just beaten Arsenal and Forest.

“We have to adapt, we have to adapt,” Lopetegui said. ‘It’s a good opportunity to show how competitive we want to be.

‘This is the most important thing. We are approaching a very busy and important month. We will play a lot of matches. We have to be ready.’