John Robertson – the ‘mini-Picasso’

“John Robertson was like Ryan Giggs but with two good feet, not one” – Nottingham Forest captain, John McGovern

For a little guy, who drank and smoked as much as your average 80s Sunday League footballer, it’s an amazing testament to John Robertson’s actual footballing ability that we still assess him as “underrated”. However, when we consider that he was described by Brian Clough as Nottingham Forest’s best player, in a team that won one Championship, two League Cups, two European Cups and one European Super Cup over a three-season period (yet never once nominated for a ‘Ballon d’Or’), you get a sense of why that description might be apt.

For added measure, there was an assist and a winning goal in consecutive European Cup finals; 243 consecutive matches for Forest, between 1976 and 1980; and scoring a winning goal, playing for Scotland against the ‘auld enemy’ at Wembley in 1981. John Robertson was underrated, alright.

John Robertson is only one part of that incredible story at Nottingham Forest. From a starting point of 13th in Division 2, when Clough took over in January 1975 to winning promotion the next season, and then everything imaginable over the next few seasons. Robertson was there from the start, alongside Viv Anderson, Martin O’Neill, Ian Bowyer and Tony Woodcock. At the beginning of Clough’s tenure, most were regarded as second-rate players before being transformed into the best players in Europe as Clough saw something in them, that nobody else could.

John Robertson would simply never have become the player that he became, were it not for Brian Clough. That manager who could isolate a player’s weakness in an instant, but also point to a player’s strengths, that he never knew he possessed. That abiding insight translated into telling a player to stop doing the things on a football field they weren’t equipped to do, and concentrate on performing the things they could do well. In John Robertson’s case, Clough moved his central midfielder – who had almost no ability to cover and very limited physical endurance – out to the left wing, where his two-footedness, speed over five yards and exemplary ball control would be better deployed.

With Brian Clough’s – and very soon after, Peter Taylor’s – belief behind Robertson, he became the player that no one knew he could become. He’d been lingering around at Forest, since his debut in 1970, remarkably unnoticed, with a record of just five goals in 72 appearances. As his confidence and self-belief picked up, so did his game. Forest edged into Division 1 with 52 points in 1977. And as Forest made the ascent, our attention was increasingly drawn to their slightly overweight No.11.

What made John Robertson stand out, so difficult to mark tightly, was his ability to play off either foot. If the spectator couldn’t predict where Robertson would dart to, pity the poor defender who was often left marking fresh air. An opposing full-back didn’t know whether to show him inside or outside, or whether they should sit back to give themselves enough space to make a challenge. Robertson had every full-back he played against, debating that dilemma. Forget that he was overweight – he was fleet-footed enough, to only needed a yard of that full-back’s space, to turn him inside out.

There was also the overwhelming weight of sadness attached to one of John Robertson’s greatest moments of his career. Just days after the tragic death of his brother Hugh and sister-in-law Isobel in a car accident, Robertson decided that he would take the field against Cologne in the 1979 European Cup semi-final. He scored a crucial goal (a diving header, no less) in the 3-3 draw at the City Ground, that ultimately helped Forest reach the final.

John’s decision to play under such circumstances showed the absolute steel and professionalism of a man who was not only grateful to be involved in a game that he would not have thought possible a few short years ago; but it was also a sign of his huge gratitude to the support shown by Brian Clough and the Forest fans who adored him.

Furthermore,there was one final drama that played out during John Robertson’s playing career, when in May 1983, recently-appointed Derby County manager Peter Taylor (yes, he) signed Robertson from Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. No football rules were broken, but the rules of friendship and loyalty had been tested beyond limits - this was the final unpicking of the final seam. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor never spoke again, before the latter’s untimely death at the age of 62 in 1990.

That transfer to Derby, and a reverse back to Forest in 1985, effectively brought a close to his football career. He had played for Scotland until 1983, and had scored a goal at the 1982 World Cup finals, in Spain. John Robertson now had decisions to make, as to his future career.

Unsure of what his post-football career might be, he fell into management with his ex-Forest team-mate Martin O’Neill. Robertson was variously chief scout and then assistant manager at Wycombe Wanderers and Norwich City, before settling at Leicester City. They, and Leicester, made steady improvement and progress, winning the League Cup twice, in 1997 and 2000 – these were the first signs that the managerial partnership were doing something right.

But by the summer of 2000, Celtic came calling. And despite growing up a childhood Rangers fan, he didn’t take much persuasion to join O’Neill in Glasgow.

The challenge ahead was huge. Out of the preceding 12 Scottish Premier Leagues (SPL), Rangers had won 11; they had won the previous season’s SPL by 21 points. Martin O’Neill and John Robertson stepped down from their respective positions at Celtic football club in 2005, having won three of the last five SPLs, and having lost the other two by one point and one goal. They reached the UEFA Cup final in 2003, too, their first European final since 1970.

Robertson’s role at Celtic was to act as sounding board for the players. Everyone respected the manager’s view, his tactics, his communication style – but sometimes players needed another part of the management team to confide in, to express their own fears and opinions. The sounding board didn’t have too much to say in the dressing room, but his best work was reserved for Martin O’Neill in the manager’s office. O’Neill valued his input and his influence highly.

Twice European Cup winner, John Robertson, describes his years at Celtic as the best years of his life in football.

There’s a post-script to their time at Celtic, that ended so abruptly because Martin O’Neill needed to care for his wife, Geraldine, who was undergoing cancer treatment. Before the 2006 World Cup, England had announced that the tournament would be the last for their incumbent manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. O’Neill was ready to return to football, as Geraldine’s health improved. There was no outright clamour by England fans, or the English media, that O’Neill should be appointed for the England post. But he was interviewed, and would have accepted the post, if asked.

English football had “survived” the first foreign managerial appointment to its national team in 2001, with the appointment of Eriksson. However, it was probably too fanciful to suggest that back in 2006, you would be starting a story with “Well, there was this Irishman and this Scotsman, and they were managing the England football team…”

John Robertson’s football career turned a corner the day he met Brian Clough; a corner leading to a path of unimagined success. His brilliance would take a long time to unravel, but it was so worth the wait. He became a double-European Cup winner, and arguably Nottingham Forest’s greatest-ever player.

And his great friendship with Martin O’Neill at Forest forged its own very special managerial partnership. They left Celtic Football Club, with its highest-ever win ratio of 75%. Without those two, John Robertson wouldn’t have had the career he enjoyed – without John Robertson, Clough and O’Neill wouldn’t have had the career they enjoyed, either.

But John Robertson’s greatest achievement - maybe the greatest legacy of the guy who could change a game with poise, not power - is that 44 years on, he was the best player in a team from Nottingham (population 268,257 - 1981 Census) that has still won the European Cup/ Champions League more times than Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Rome put together.