Sir Bobby’s youngest son has admitted his family had no idea how much of an impact the former Ipswich manager’s legacy would have.

And standing next to the statue of his father in the sunshine beside Portman Road yesterday Mark Robson said it was only after his death that the scale of his success hit home.

As part of the celebrations for Sir Bobby Robson Day at Ipswich Town’s ground, which coincided with the club’s open day, Mr Robson was present as the FA donated £25,000 to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.

The charity was set up by Sir Bobby and his family to fund research into the detection and treatment of cancer, a disease which affected the County Durham-born manager on five occasions.

Mr Robson said coming back to Ipswich, the town where he grew up, was always a happy occasion.

“It’s a beautiful sunny day to be at Portman Road and get on the pitch and see the kids training on what I used to call the reserve team pitch,” he said.

“There’s thousands of thousands of kids and families here. Dad would have loved it. It’s absolutely perfect that it’s coincided with the Ipswich open day and dad’s anniversary.

“I don’t think he would have expected the legacy to be what it is. We certainly didn’t, myself, my two brothers and mum, we had no idea.

“We sort of had no idea of how successful he was in his career until after he died which is quite sad, but it’s true. He wouldn’t have had a clue that the foundation would have raised so much money.

“Everyone’s got good words to say about him and there are lots of people to say those good words. It strikes me every day how popular he was and how highly thought of.”

On present day Ipswich, who will be pushing for promotion back to the top flight under Mick McCarthy, Mr Robson said he would have loved to hear a chat between his father and the current boss.

“Mick’s a great manager and a good family friend. I’d have loved to listen to dad talking to Mick and telling him what to do and giving him advice, that would have been a great conversation.”

To read out more about how ITFC’s open day went click here.

To see what Peter Shilton said about his former England manager click here.