Bryan “Pop” Robson signed for Ron Greenwood’s West Ham from Newcastle in February 1971 and at the time was the clubs record signing. He started paying back his 120,000 pound signing on fee immediately as he scored on debut against Nottingham Forest, although to be fair it took a while before he was hitting the back of the net regularly. His playing stats may get younger fans asking why he was considered such an Upton Park favourite? He had already played 244 times for Newcastle before joining the Hammers, and after his first spell with us he had three spells each at Sunderland and Carlisle and a short time at Chelsea. He actually had two spells with West Ham between 1971/74 and 1976/79. You could say he got around a bit!! When looking at the dates of the two spells at Upton Park you can see the timing of his coming and going was poor. He missed both the FA Cup final wins of that era and the ECWC final of 1976.
However, 104 goals in 255 games over the two periods was a good return and his best hauls were 28 from 46 in 72/73 and 26 from 42 in 78/79. The 28 goals in 1972/73 made him the old first divisions top goal scorer that season. How we could do with that sort of striker nowadays? The latter tally of 26 in his second spell with the club came in the old division two.
But there was just something else that the fans loved about Pop. He was short for a forward and was follically challenged, which always made him look a lot older than he actually was – I think this was the reasoning behind the nickname Pop. For an unfashionable looking striker he had a knack of scoring spectacular goals. An overhead kick he scored against Derby in his second season with us springs to mind as does a wonderful trap, swivel and volley against Wrexham in 1979.
John Lyall re-signed Pop for his second spell with West Ham when an injury crisis hit the club in 1976 and this time the fee was 80,000 pounds. So you could say that both the finest managers in the clubs history had now signed the man? His hat trick in 1978 in a 3-0 win over Millwall is as good a reason to love the man.