Kieron Dyer has admitted that Sir Bobby Robson's sacking was 'always' on his conscience after the Newcastle United midfielder infamously refused to play on the wing.
It was the summer of 2004 and Dyer had previously volunteered to play out wide in a pre-season friendly against Rangers after team-mate Craig Bellamy did not want to. However, when Dyer was asked to do so again for the Premier League opener against Middlesbrough, two weeks later, the Newcastle midfielder refused to do so as he wanted to play in the middle of the park.
Dyer eventually came on at right wing midway through the second half and was at fault for Boro's last-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw before being booed while playing for England at St James' Park a few days later after the story came out. Dyer was again jeered when he came on for Newcastle against Spurs in the Magpies' next game and the midfielder never wanted to be substituted as badly as he did in what proved to be Sir Bobby's penultimate game in charge, a 2-2 draw against Norwich City, after again being booed by some of his own fans at St James'.
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Sir Bobby was sacked just a few days later, following a 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa, and that final meeting at the training ground has stuck with Dyer all these years later.
"Bobby lost his job so that was always on my conscience and when he had to say his goodbyes, I just hugged him," he told the Central Club podcast. "You know when you don't want to let go?
"It was pretty brutal to be honest that I had to live with that and, at the time, I couldn't come out and give my reasons why. Listen, again, I could have a hundred million reasons. If a manager asks you to play for a football club, you play for a football club - then you have your beef afterwards.
"But I didn't want to come out with my side of the story because Craig would have got it so I was protecting my friend as well. Even though it was killing me even more, I didn't want Craig to go down that same path as well."
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