Icons of Football: John Robertson – the ‘scruffy fat lad who won two European Cups’
Martin O’Neill, Nottingham Forest teammate and Celtic manager
He was an incredibly talented, beautiful football player who could play with both feet.
I keep coming back to this word, fulcrum. He rarely missed football games and we needed John to play every one of them. I think he did his part in football history.
He’s definitely an iconic figure considering what he’s achieved in the game.
It was a really big thing for John to go back to Scotland to see his family. He was rarely able to return home and heard about the opportunity to return home as assistant manager [at Celtic].
John really enjoyed his role. He was a special partner, there’s no doubt about that.
People believed John, for lack of a better phrase, and that’s exactly what happened. There was something about him.
The players had great respect for John as a player and everyone who played in his position would come and ask John for advice. I have heard top quality players in the Premier League say that the advice John gave them was influential.
