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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 EFL Cup with Sheffield Wednesday in 1991 and Aston Villa in 1994.
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 Atkinson. He went on to make over 500 appearances in all competitions as a wing-half for the club, earning, in his playing days 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.
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.
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 FC 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.
Atkinson's tenure at Atlético was quite a turbulent one and despite relative moderate success in terms of league position, a clash of personalities with the then-owner of the club, Jesús Gil, led to Atkinson being sacked after just three months as manager. His right-hand man at West Bromwich Albion, Colin Addison, was appointed, much to the disdain of Atkinson, who went on record in the English media as saying Addison had "stabbed him in the back". The pair never worked together again following the events at Atlético.
Despite leading Villa to their first major success since their 1982 European Cup triumph, a mutual dislike between Villa chairman Doug Ellis and Atkinson that developed from 1992, inevitably resulted in him being sacked on 10 November 1994 following a 4–3 defeat at the hands of Wimbledon – three days after Ellis had given Atkinson a "vote of confidence" in the media, stating that Atkinson was one of England's "top three football managers". By this stage, an ageing Villa side that had so nearly won the league title 18 months earlier were now among the relegation battlers. He was replaced by Brian Little, who kept Villa in the top flight and built a new younger team.
In December 1995, Atkinson guided the Sky Blues to one of their best results of the 1990s, a 5–0 home win over defending champions Blackburn Rovers. During his spell as manager of Coventry, he brought in high-profile players including Gordon Strachan, Noel Whelan and Gary McAllister (although in his autobiography he states that this latter signing was Strachan's initiative and he was opposed for tactical reasons) but they continued to struggle in the Premier League and in November 1996 he became Director of Football, handing over managerial duties to Strachan, who by then had retired as a player and had become assistant manager.
Atkinson took over as manager on 11 January 1999 and Forest's relegation was confirmed on 24 April with a 2–0 defeat at his old club Aston Villa. He announced his resignation as manager within hours of the final whistle, with effect from the final game of the league season on 16 May and said that he would be retiring from football management altogether.
In 1997, he appeared as manager of Harchester United in Dream Team.
In August 2013, Atkinson became a housemate on the twelfth series of Celebrity Big Brother. He was the second housemate to be evicted on Day 9 after receiving the fewest votes to save him against Charlotte Crosby, Courtney Stodden, Lauren Harries and Louie Spence.
Atkinson resigned from ITV on 21 April 2004, after he made a racist comment live on air about the Black people Chelsea player Marcel Desailly; believing the microphone to be switched off, he said, "...he Desailly is what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy, thick nigger". Although transmission in the UK had finished, the microphone gaffe meant that his comment was broadcast to various countries in the Middle East. He also left his job as a columnist for The Guardian "by mutual agreement" as a result of the comment. Atkinson quits over racist slur - BBC News, 22 April 2004
Carlton Palmer, one of Atkinson's players while he was manager at Sheffield Wednesday, defended Atkinson by saying, "I'm black and I'm sitting here and I'm gonna stand up for Big Ron not because he's a friend of mine; I'm standing up for him because I know what he's like as a bloke. If we're going to deal with racism then let's deal with the bigger picture of racism not about a throwaway comment that wasn't meant in that manner." A BBC Radio documentary about Batson, Cunningham and Regis, entitled Three Degrees West, repeated on 16 May 2004, was cancelled owing to Atkinson's central contributions.
Also in 2004, Atkinson said to an audience at Hillsborough Stadium: "The Chinese people have the best contraception in the world - their women are so ugly. I can't understand why there are so many of them."
On Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, he jokingly asked fellow contestant, Irish doctor Danielle Marr, "you're not Suicide attack, are you?", when she draped her jumper over her head like a headscarf.
Atkinson spent the 2006 World Cup recording an amateur video blog and distributing it through the UK-based video sharing site SelfcastTV.com. He also provided commentary on the World Cup for the UK digital channel UKTV G2.
In 2006, Atkinson took part in the BBC Two programme Excuse My French. Atkinson, comedian Marcus Brigstocke and television presenter Esther Rantzen were immersed in the French language by staying in a remote town in the Provence region, being compelled to adapt to the French lifestyle and speak the language. His assignment at the end of the course was to provide a match analysis on a football match (Paris Saint-Germain – Monaco) in French for a French radio station.
He briefly made a return to television, appearing as a pundit on Football Italia broadcast on Bravo. He left the programme when Bravo lost the broadcast rights to Italian football.
Atkinson returned to the screen on 16 August 2009 on the Channel 4 reality show Celebrity Wife Swap. When questioned about his controversial comments by swappee Tessa Sanderson, he refused to discuss it.
Atkinson brought out an autobiography 60 Minutes with Ron Atkinson, in which he talks about his controversial comments and his football career.
Atkinson is currently a pundit on William Hill's The Punt podcast and on Manchester United's channel MUTV. In October 2019, he made a return to broadcasting, commentating on the six-a-side World Cup final in Crete, alongside UK commentator John Gwynne.
| + Managerial record by team and tenure | |||
| Kettering Town | 14 December 1971 | 22 November 1974 | |
| Cambridge United | 22 November 1974 | 12 January 1978 | |
| West Bromwich Albion | 12 January 1978 | 9 June 1981 | |
| Manchester United | 9 June 1981 | 6 November 1986 | |
| West Bromwich Albion | 3 September 1987 | 12 October 1988 | |
| Atlético Madrid | 12 October 1988 | 16 January 1989 | |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 14 February 1989 | 6 June 1991 | |
| Aston Villa | 7 June 1991 | 10 November 1994 | |
| Coventry City | 15 February 1995 | 5 November 1996 | |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 14 November 1997 | 17 May 1998 | |
| Nottingham Forest | 11 January 1999 | 16 May 1999 | |
Cambridge United
Manchester United
Sheffield Wednesday
Aston Villa
Individual
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