Forget Middlesbrough FC’s remarkable season, Bryan Robson nearly left Manchester United for Wolves, says Clayton Blackmore

With a controversial relegation and three lost cup finals, Robson’s five-and-a-half years were not always plain sailing but his pulling power and chairman Steve Gibson’s financial heft attracted some of world football’s top players to Middlesbrough.

But Blackmore, who first played alongside Robson at Manchester United in 1984 and followed him to Boro 10 years later, has revealed the former England captain nearly went elsewhere half a season before moving to Teesside.

Signed in 1981, by the start of 1993-94 the then-36-year-old was being phased out by the Red Devils, limited to 10 Premier League starts by the arrival of Roy Keane. Blackmore – six years younger –did not feature at all.

“We were playing in the FA Cup games and were in the reserves,” said Blackmore. “Robbo nearly went to Wolves in the middle of that season, but he ended up staying on as we were in the cup and Sir Alex (Ferguson) said, ‘We will definitely play you.’”

Manchester United reached both domestic finals that season but Robson, who started and scored in the FA Cup semi-final replay, did not make the squad for either.

So when Gibson offered him the job of Boro player-manager that summer, he took it and brought Blackmore with him, winning promotion to the Premier League as champions in his first season.

The second campaign ended in bitter disappointment, Boro relegated either side of losing the League Cup and FA Cup finals.

They would have stayed up had they not been docked points for calling off December’s match at Blackburn Rovers, claiming a virus left them unable to field a proper team.

To this day, Blackmore cannot understand why.

“It was a crazy shout as they (Blackburn) had four of their top players out,” Blackmore recalled in an interview with Boyle Sports.

“People like Tim Flowers was out, they had three centre-halves and the centre-forward was injured – and we had a full squad!

“On the morning we called it off, Neil Cox and Derek Wright were sent home ill, and they weren’t. We had an 8-v-8, so I was like why are we cancelling the game?

“There was obviously a reason, I don’t know what, but we got docked three points and ended up going down. We should have done better in the first part of the season or maybe played me!”