The sad news of Michael Robinson’s passing had just been revealed by his family when the tributes began to arrive in torrents.
Friends were heartbroken, former team-mates and colleagues were crestfallen. Robinson, a European Cup winner with Liverpool in 1984, was an avuncular figure, full of life and happiness and possessor of a wonderful smile. The words that people used to pay tribute spoke volumes.
World Cup winners Andres Iniesta and Iker Casillas took to Twitter to pay their respects, as did Rafael Nadal. The tennis star would spend hours in conversation with Robinson — whose post-playing career saw him become the pre-eminent voice of Spanish football.