Titus Bramble lifts lid on stormy Newcastle United years but clears up truth on brutal Robson exit

Titus Bramble admits he still remembers a feeling of injustice the day that Sir Bobby Robson was told to clear his desk at St James' Park.

Clutching a golf club, his transfer shortlist and contacts book, Robson was shown the door in an unceremonious manner and fired after a fifth-place finish and with the Magpies still in Europe and hoping to lift a cup or two in 2004. The immediate verdict was that the players had let Robson down, and a Football Sergeant Major like Graeme Souness was needed to whip the players into shape.

Newcastle then went from the renowned man-management of Robson to the razor-sharp Scottish hardman Souness, who even challenged Craig Bellamy to a fist fight at the training ground when his methods were questioned. Bramble was one of a clutch of young stars, including Kieron Dyer, Bellamy, Olly Bernard and Jonathan Woodgate, who still managed to reach a UEFA Cup semi-final but just fell short.

Now assisting Nobby Solano as No 2 with the Pakistan national team, Bramble admits he is now leaning on the man management skills and life values taught to him by Sir Bobby as a raw 20-year-old from Ipswich Town, after he made a £5million move from the Tractor Boys.

In a rare interview, Bramble said: "People will never forget how you made them feel. And Sir Bobby always made you feel a million dollars - even if he was telling you you'd not been picked!

"He had a brilliant knack of dealing with you, even if you were being told you were dropped or not playing, he would tell you why you weren't being selected for the team. You'd be disappointed, but then he'd build you back up and underline your importance. When you left that room, you did feel a million dollars; that is something that the great managers all have, superb man management. He had it in abundance."

Former Newcastle United defender Titus Bramble is now coaching the Pakistan national team

But talk of letting the ex-Barcelona and Three Lions boss down? That never happened in the eyes of Bramble, who tried to stay away from the media limelight during half a decade at St James' Park.

Bramble said: "Listen, I wasn't always at my best at Newcastle, yes, it was up and down - but I was a young player, I was 20 the day I signed. I have nothing but fond memories of living in the city and being with the team."

Dyer has since spoken of his guilt at Robson's sacking, and there was a rude awakening when Souness came in and tried to shake things up at St James' Park.

Bramble said: "Graeme was old school. He was honest, which I like in a manager, but the talk was that he came in as Sir Bobby had lost the dressing room. That was simply never the case; we loved him and were devastated when he went. Certain people in the media back then made up stories about the younger players.

"Sir Bobby had our full respect, and he knew that the day he went. Graeme came in and was different but an honest manager, again it was just a different time from what we were used to. It was a big change."

But Robson's coaching and his incredible knack of lighting up rooms in the football world still live on to this day. As Bramble works as Solano's assistant with Pakistan, the dream is one day of qualifying for a World Cup of Asian Championship finals.

Bramble said: "Those people skills I learned from Sir Bobby are always there. It's something different too, I have never worked with a national team before, so I am really enjoying the new role. It is relatively new, but all good. It is a massive challenge because it is a cricketing country of 230million people. But we feel there are some hidden gems here that we can get into the team and go from there.

"It is a big challenge but an exciting one. It is breaking it down and simplifying the game. We are trying to pass down what we were taught and what we learned to the next generation.

"As a coach, it is completely different; it is my job to help them, and now we have more video analysis and the mod cons we didn't have as players. There's so many tools can only help improve the players.

"I also coach in Abu Dhabi at the PASS soccer school and so much of what I go off is man management. You work on people, and they are the most important thing, you know they are footballers, but they are people first, once you get that human feel, they will do whatever you want them to, they will run through brick walls for you.

"The team we had at Newcastle was built on man management thanks to Bobby Robson. Some may say we actually overachieved, but it is because of Sir Bobby we were as good as we were, because he was a brilliant man-manager.

"I was actually at Southend during the summer, working with Kieron Dyer and watching him work. Kieron's man management is based off Sir Bobby, and Nobby Solano is like that too, the man management is there for all to see, we all have one person in common and that's Sir Bobby."

Robson's Newcastle team came within a whisker of winning something and even Souness, who inherited a squad containing Alan Shearer, Solano and Laurent Robert made it to an FA Cup semi-final.

It was in 2003 that Newcastle went into April still pushing Arsenal in the title race before a late collapse and a final position of third in Bramble's first season.

Bramble reflected: "Some people said we overachieved but in-house we believed. We knew we had a good manager and an exciting squad, with world-class players, backed by Freddy Shepherd of course.

"We had myself, Kieron Dyer, Jonathan Woodgate, Craig Bellamy alongside stars like Alan Shearer, Gary Speed and Shay Given. We were more than capable because we had a mix of real experience at the top level with the young, exciting stars the club had attracted.

"It was a fantastic team and the only reason we didn't win the Premier League, after challenging for it in 2002 and 2003, and we should have won at least one cup, but we only had a couple of winners on board and needed a couple more.

"Speedo had won the title with Leeds and Al who won the league at Blackburn. Other than that, we had nobody else who'd been there and done it. That's all that was missing.

"It's always about getting your first title, as Newcastle have shown in 2025. I mean, look at Arsenal a couple of years ago, they couldn't quite get over the line. Then last season, they did it because they had the experience. When it gets down to the last seven or eight games, and you need to nick a 1-0 win, we couldn't do that.

"That's where, with an exciting squad, we had the energy but just not the know-how, and that's why we just fell away towards the end of 2002 before I signed, and 2003 when we finished a very creditable third. We still got Champions League but couldn't get over the line.

"Then after Sir Bobby, we got to the latter stages of the UEFA Cup and FA Cup but lost in the quarter-final in Europe to Sporting and then the FA Cup semi against Man United in the space of days and our season was gone in the space of a week. With more experience we'd have at least reach a final or two."

Bramble's last day at Newcastle came in 2007, before he was sold to Wigan, then Sunderland, and during his time on Wearside, the Magpies ended up being relegated as Freddy Shepherd was replaced by Mike Ashley as owner.

The Suffolk-born player said: "Where did it go wrong? I left the club and don't know what happened day to day.

"Playing for the team and knowing what it meant to the city, I still felt deep disappointment when Newcastle were relegated, even though I'd left. The team had not been set up for that. A team as big as Newcastle should never be relegated. It was a travesty they went down.

"It's all changed now, and I think the club will bounce back to where they belong, which is that Champions League stage."

Bramble was the toast of Tyneside back in 2006 in one of his finest moments for the club when he volleyed home the winner against Chelsea in front of the Gallowgate End from an Emre corner to take Glenn Roeder's side into Europe!

The former centre-back said: "We then had Glenn Roeder and we actually got into Europe and I scored the winner that day. When I bump into Newcastle fans that's what they mention. We always have a good chit-chat.

"It is always fond memories really, we had massive Champions League nights, don't forget, beating Juventus, and we went to Barcelona. They were great days, massive teams and nights at places like the Nou Camp, it was done through sheer hard work on the training ground.

"The message we pass on to the guys with Pakistan now is get the bread and butter right. Work hard first. Working hard takes you places. Anything else you can excuse, you can have a bad day, but what I remember is living in the North East, the people there were built on hard work, day in, day out. That's the culture and what we tried to mirror on the pitch.

"Fans will forgive you for a bad day, but no excuses for not working hard. I learned that living in the region and it's still built into us."

Former Newcastle United stars Nobby Solano and Titus Bramble are now coaching the Pakistan national team

Bramble's Newcastle connection also helped get him on the international stage after a chance meeting with his old team-mate Solano in the UAE.

Bramble said: "We didn't speak for a while but I got a phone call through a friend and Nobby was in Dubai, we met up. He was in the process of getting the job with Pakistan, and he asked me if I'd be No 2.

"We have a friendship like ours, it's great. Maybe we didn't speak every day, but the great friends are the ones you can pick up the phone to after a few months, and everything picks up where you left off years ago."

With an expanded World Cup coming up in 2030, the dream is for a smaller football nation like Pakistan to get to the greatest show on earth. As Pakistan look to climb the FIFA rankings at this autumn's FIFA ASEAN Cup in the Far East, Bramble is still dreaming big.

Bramble said: "We'd love to get to a major tournament but it is step by step. Pakistan is a new nation in terms of football but Rome wasn't built in a day, so we go step by step.

"We have just won a tournament in the Maldives, so it was a good start. We are now in the FIFA ASEAN Cup and this will be next level opponents. We are building towards the Asian Cup qualifiers and the World Cup qualifiers."