Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Nicknamed "The Tank" during his playing career, he represented Oxford United for twelve years, and still holds the club record for appearances. As a manager, he won the FA Cup with Manchester United in 1983 and 1985 and the Football League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday in 1991 and Aston Villa in 1994.
Atkinson was born in Liverpool in the Old Swan area of the city as was his brother Graham Atkinson who was also a professional footballer. After a few years his family moved to Shard End (then in Warwickshire, now an area of Birmingham). He attended Lea Village Secondary School. After beginning his career as a ground staff boy at Wolverhampton Wanderers, he was signed by Aston Villa from works team BSA Tools at the age of 17. Atkinson has referred to then Villa coach Jimmy Hogan as his biggest influence. He never played a first-team match but team-mate Dennis Jackson noted "I played with Ron in about 100 reserve games. And according to Ron he was man of the match in at least 99 of them."
Atkinson was transferred to Headington United (renamed Oxford United in 1960) in the summer of 1959 on a free transfer. There he played alongside his younger brother Graham. He went on to make over 500 appearances in all competitions as a wing-half for the club, earning the nickname "The Tank" and scoring a total of fourteen goals. He was United's captain through their rise from the Southern League to the Second Division, achieved in only six years from 1962 to 1968. He was the first ever footballer to captain a club from the Southern League through three divisions of the Football League, and played three seasons in the Second Division.
Kettering Town and Cambridge United
After retiring from playing, Atkinson became manager player of non-league Kettering Town in 1971, aged only 32. His success there led to a move to the league with Cambridge United, in November 1974, going on to win the Fourth Division in 1977 and leaving them when they were on the verge of promotion to the Second Division, which they later achieved that season under Atkinson's assistant John Docherty.
In January 1978, Atkinson moved to manage First Division West Bromwich Albion. He soon signed Brendon Batson from his former club, to play alongside Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis. Never before had a team in the top division of English football simultaneously fielded three black players on a regular basis.
Atkinson led West Bromwich Albion to third place in the league in the season 1978–79 and also to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. On 30 December 1978, they achieved a famous 5–3 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. The club were second in the table at the time, only beaten off top spot from Liverpool by goal difference. They finished fourth in 1981, and shortly after this Atkinson was appointed the manager of Manchester United following the dismissal of Dave Sexton.
Atkinson was seen as the man who could bring the spark to Manchester United that had been so sorely lacking under his predecessor. Sexton had taken them to second place in the league in 1980 but did not win a major trophy in his four years at the club. United had finished eighth in the season before Atkinson's appointment, and Atkinson had actually missed out of the chance of overseeing a UEFA Cup campaign by departing from Albion and taking over at United.
In the 1981–82 season, United finished third in the First Division, to qualify for the UEFA Cup, though for much of the season they were one of several teams who topped the table before a late surge from Liverpool saw Bob Paisley's team seal the title. Early in the season he had paid a national record £1.5 million for Bryan Robson from his old club West Bromwich Albion, and shortly afterwards also added midfielder Remi Moses, also from West Brom, and Arsenal striker Frank Stapleton to his ranks. He also gave a debut to promising young forward Norman Whiteside in April 1982, just before the player's 17th birthday.
In the 1982–83 season, two appearances at Wembley, one of which was an FA Cup victory against Brighton & Hove Albion, coupled with another third-place finish in the league, fuelled speculation that United were back in a big way. During the first half of the season, they had topped the league more than once but a storming run of form by Liverpool beginning before Christmas meant that the title headed for Anfield for the second year running. 1982–83 also saw the breakthrough of Whiteside as one of the best performing players in the First Division. Whiteside was also on the scoresheet for the FA Cup final replay as United beat Brighton 4–0 after drawing the first game 2–2.
In the 1983–84 season, Atkinson's side reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup although their defence of the FA Cup ended at the first hurdle with a shock 2–0 defeat at Third Division team AFC Bournemouth. They finished fourth in the league, having topped the table at several stages once again, before injuries to key players counted against them and they dropped points. The end of the season saw the sale of key midfielder Ray Wilkins to A.C. Milan of Italy for £1.5 million, while the duration of the season had seen the breakthrough of young striker Mark Hughes. Rather than plunge into the transfer market for a big name, Atkinson shifted Norman Whiteside into midfield to fill the gap left by Wilkins and allowed Hughes to form a partnership with the experienced Frank Stapleton.
In the 1984–85 season, United again won the FA Cup. However, Atkinson and his team were denied the chance of another European Cup Winners Cup campaign as the Heysel disaster at the European Cup final that year resulted in an indefinite ban from European competitions for all English clubs.
In the 1985–86 season, they won their first ten games of the league season and were unbeaten after their first fifteen games to build a comfortable lead at the top of the table that lasted into the new year. However, their form tailed off badly and they again finished fourth, with Liverpool finishing the season as league champions. With the ban on English clubs in European competitions continuing, there was not even the consolation of a UEFA Cup place. United's title chances were not helped by the fact that captain Bryan Robson was only available for half of United's league games due to injuries.
There was more disappointment for United's fans when the sale of Mark Hughes to Spanish club Barcelona was announced at the end of the season. Atkinson had prepared for Hughes' departure in March 1986 by paying Nottingham Forest £570,000 for England striker Peter Davenport. Although Davenport was their top scorer in the 1986–87 season, he failed to achieve the same success as Hughes and was not a popular figure among fans.
Despite media speculation that Atkinson would be sacked in favour of Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson or Barcelona manager Terry Venables, the 1986–87 season began with Atkinson still at the helm. His two FA Cup wins and five successive top four league finishes had made him the most successful United manager since Matt Busby, but the pressure to build on the earlier successes was becoming more intense than ever. The 1986–87 season began poorly with three successive defeats, and despite a minor upturn in September and October which included a 5–1 home win over Southampton in the league, the pressure on Atkinson remained intense and the board finally ran out of patience on 6 November 1986 when he was dismissed as manager two days after a 4–1 exit at the hands of Southampton in the League Cup. United were still in the bottom four of the First Division with a third of the season already gone.
Return to West Bromwich Albion
Atkinson returned to West Brom in the autumn of 1987, by which time they had fallen into the Second Division and were battling against relegation to the Third Division. Survival was achieved, as Albion finished the 1987–88 season in 20th place, and they began the 1988–89 season well, looking like serious promotion contenders.