'Are you mad?' - Karl Robinson on Leeds United job, Angus Kinnear, missing trio and main regrets - YEP 1/6/23

Karl Robinson says he and Sam Allardyce thought they had the “egos” to keep Leeds United up – and believes they were “so close” to fulfilling the brief.

By Lee Sobot

Former MK Dons, Charlton Athletic and Oxford United boss Robinson was brought in alongside Allardyce as one of the 68-year-old manager’s assistants upon accepting the task to preserve United’s Premier League status with just four games left.

Robinson revealed that he initially thought Allardyce was “mad” to take up the position and attempt a task that Robinson felt was “almost impossible” given the timescale involved.

Leeds were ultimately relegated in finishing second-bottom and five points adrift of safety but Robinson feels “key moments” cost his side in addition to the injuries to Tyler Adams, Patrick Bamford and Luis Sinisterra.

Speaking in an interview with talkSPORT, 42-year-old Robinson hailed the people that welcomed him to the club – including chief executive Angus Kinnear – and insisted that ultimately he, Allardyce and fellow assistant Robbie Keane arrived full of belief that they could keep Leeds up.

"Once you get in the club there are some unbelievable people there, there really are,” said Robinson to talkSPORT. "The backroom staff, the CEO, the whole football club is geared to be successful and in the Premier League.

"Obviously the last two years have been an incredibly difficult time for everybody, whether that be from the recruiting point of view, some of the injuries. If you look, even when Sam went in, they lose Patrick Bamford, there's one or two big players, Tyler Adams we didn't have, Sinisterra wasn't fit and they are big players if you are going to win games of football.

"And they just struggled in certain moments, especially when we were there. Obviously the penalty miss, the chances that we conceded, penalties that we gave away, sendings off, just key moments.

"Even the West Ham game in the second half we got dominated in most of the areas, the two goals went to VAR and were only a centimetres from being offside. They were so close yet so far the whole season.

"It was almost an impossible job but we all have that ego where we all think we can go in there and pull off a miracle. And that's not naivety or stupidity, we actually did believe we could do it even though we knew it would be so difficult."

Reflecting on first finding out that Allardyce was going to Leeds and his invitation to join him, Robinson revealed: “He said 'I am going in for the last four games of the season'. I think I actually said ‘are you mad?’ And he said 'no, get yourself up here tonight and we will have a conversation'. So I went and played nine holes, I was rubbish, got in my car and drove up to Yorkshire.

"That was it. He said to me, 'I think Robbie Keane is coming in, do you think he should come with us?' I said that would be a great idea and all of a sudden Robbie Keane was with us at about half ten the next morning as well. That's how quick it all happened."