Karl Robinson has reached a remarkable milestone before most managers are even beginning their careers.
Oxford boss Robinson will take charge of his 500th game against Tranmere as he also celebrates his birthday weekend, having turned 39 on Friday.
Robinson said: “I never dreamed I would get to this number, I’ve always said that if I was lucky enough to get to 500 that I’d have had really bad experiences, humbling experiences and it’s made me the manager that I am today.
“I was a nobody when I started because I didn’t make it as a player and I’m still so young, I’ve got 100 per cent more desire to learn now than when I started. I didn’t think I’d make 100 but I guess this is my life now.
“I want to keep learning. I’ve just signed a three year contract, I want to keep building and improving but I also want to manage abroad and I think you’ve got to do that before you can think about managing in the Premier League.
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“I’ve experienced promotions, relegations and I’ve known what it’s like to suffer defeats and for the fans to be calling for your head. But abroad, they think being relegated as a manager makes you better and I think it does.
“I’ve still got the enthusiasm. I’ve still got the nerves at 12 o’clock on a Saturday. The stress of winning is the hardest thing – when you win, you just want to sleep. When you lose, you just go over and over everything in your mind.”
It is that infectious enthusiasm which has made Robinson such a good manager. He took his first job as manager of MK Dons at 29, took them into the Championship, laid the foundations at Charlton for Lee Bowyer and is now rebuilding Oxford.
By his own admission, Robinson was an average non-league player, but got the bug of management when he was persuaded to coach kids – and that has been his greatest gift throughout his ten year career.
Scouser Robinson started coaching at Liverpool ’s academy alongside Steve Heighway – where he saw the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn (who is now at Oxford on loan) – then went to Blackburn where he worked with Paul Ince and Sam Allardyce.
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“I owe Steve Heighway, Paul Ince and Sam Allardyce so much. They probably don’t realise how much. I’ve never seen anything like Steve’s development of young players,” he said. “To work with Paul and his mentality. If we were having a coffee together, he’d want to finish his first!
“We did Sky together and they were being serious, they asked him a question and he just said: ‘I beat him at gold yesterday!’ That’s how he is. Then you have Sam and his attention to detail is just scary. They are the three people who were such a massive influence on me.
“The biggest buzz is working with young players. 100 per cent. I had Dele Alli at MK, Cameron Brannagan scored the winner in my 200th. That was sort of fitting. Then I’m watching Dele at the World Cup and I’m thinking: ‘Is this real?’
“I did something crazy last year. A young player, Shandon Baptiste had dislocated his shoulder, came back and then did his cruciate in his first game back. The game was still going on and I just walked straight out onto the pitch. I just care for young people.”
Robinson is also someone who cares passionately about football, badgers the EFL on a regular basis. with a phone call to offer ideas on how to improve the game.
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He is a huge supporter of the League Managers’ Association and is eternally grateful for the way they helped him through the “dark times” in his life after his close friend Andy King died in 2015.
“Over the past four years, I’ve tried to be a better person, a better manager and a better person,” said Robinson. “I’m completely different now to when I started.
“It wasn’t arrogance, it was my own insecurities and trying to be a person that I wasn’t. I’d go to managers’ meetings, look around the room, see that Mick McCarthy put his hand up so I did. Now I think for myself and I just enjoy helping people better themselves.”
Robinson is one of the game’s biggest characters outside of the Premier League. But any celebration of his birthday or managerial milestone is on hold.
He added: “It’s my birthday at the weekend, everyone is coming to the game, my wife, my daughter, my mum and and dad. Someone said: ‘Shall we book a restaurant?’ I just said: ‘No – because if we lose, I’m not going out.’”
