To today the Malmo proper again in all probability would not know fairly the way it occurred. The stocky, unremarkable bloke on the left aspect of Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest group was not fast and sometimes appeared joyful to signal submit precisely what he was about to do.
However John Robertson did it anyway. As Roland Andersson confirmed him down the road on the Munich Olympiastadion in 1979, Clough’s unlikely and moderately reluctant hero, dropped his shoulder, earned himself a half a yard of house and arched a fantastically excellent cross onto the pinnacle of Trevor Francis on the far submit.
With that, probably the most well-known trophy in Forest’s historical past – certainly one of the unlikely and celebrated triumphs of the English sport – was secured. Francis had solely been on the membership a matter of months however he knew sufficient about Robertson to know precisely what was coming, to know precisely the place to be.
‘He crossed the ball like a metronome,’ Francis informed the Each day Mail a number of years in the past.
‘Individuals discuss my well-known aim but it surely was all about him, actually. I did the easy bit. He by no means actually knew it, however he was a bloody genius.’
Francis died two and a half years in the past and now Robertson has gone, too. The Scot handed away on Christmas Day on the age of 72. Forest supporters particularly will respect the timing. To them, there was at all times one thing vaguely celestial about Robbo.
John Robertson (left) was moderately gradual, smoked, and Brian Clough described him as an ‘uninterested waste of time’ – then he turned a Nottingham Forest hero
He received two European Cups with Forest and his potential was in comparison with that of George Greatest
Robertson was to attain a European Cup-winning aim of his personal a yr after that magical second in Bavaria. Clough’s group defended their title because of a Robertson aim in opposition to Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg in Madrid.
However it was that second twelve months earlier than in Germany that can at all times stand out. Forest’s journey from the previous Second Division to the top of the European sport was full and it had been carved out of nowhere by a participant who represented a lot of what was so fantastically unlikely about all of it.
Robertson was truly on the switch record on the Metropolis Floor when Clough swept by way of the door in 1975. The Scot did not appear like an athlete, nor did he stay like one. He smoked, for a begin. He was scruffy and regarded chubby.
Clough’s first impressions weren’t remotely portentous. There was no early identification of immense and extraordinary expertise. No lightning strike second.
‘He was a scruffy, unfit, uninterested waste of time,’ was one in every of Clough’s extra earthy reflections and he meant it.
However Robertson may play off each ft, may ship crosses and passes from a standing begin and browse the wants and desires of a sport instinctively and intuitively. He turned a playmaker from a large place and as such was a trailblazer.
Forest and all that they did beneath Clough had been pushed by a robust sense of underdog objective and a way of togetherness that might not be purchased. However inside that construction and beneath the noses of such stable residents as John McGovern, Frank Clarke and Garry Birtles, actual genius was allowed to thrive.
A current ballot of Forest supporters voted Robertson because the membership’s greatest participant of all time and not one of the members of the Thursday Membership who nonetheless collect in Nottingham to look again on the wondrous issues they did would ever disagree.
With out him, Nottingham Forest wouldn’t have been remotely the identical and vice-versa
‘He could not have regarded like George Greatest however he was nearly as good as him in each approach,’ stated McGovern.
‘We’d not have received these European Cup finals with out him.
‘It was fairly straightforward to see that in the event you needed to create one thing, simply get the ball out to Roberston as shortly as doable. He was our go-to man.’
Robertson, born in Lanarkshire, performed 28 instances for Scotland and performed within the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain. He scored a successful aim in opposition to England in 1981, one thing he was not shy of mentioning because the years drifted on by way of a stellar teaching profession after which, reluctantly, retirement.
In Scotland, they knew precisely what they’d. The nice Graeme Souness as soon as described Robertson in these pages as ‘probably the most underrated footballer of any technology’ however all through all of it it was onerous to flee the sensation the peculiar man vibe was all simply a part of the act.
‘He regarded like he had a bit paunch, he’d put on these battered previous desert boots and you’ll barely see him and not using a fag in his hand,’ added Souness.
Upon the tip of a enjoying profession that ultimately concluded with a second spell at Forest after 72 league appearances down the highway at Derby, Robertson discovered a house as Martin O’Neill’s proper hand man at Wycombe, Norwich, Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa.
As a coach, his schtick was just about the identical. He continued to look virtually intentionally misplaced, to put on an expression of a person who had simply been – or was about to be – caught doing one thing he should not.
Forest followers voted him their membership’s greatest-ever participant and it’s onerous to disagree
However as a foil to O’Neill’s urbane and eccentric intelligence and ultra-analysis, Robertson’s model of straight ahead soccer and man administration intuition was priceless. Gamers liked him and listened to him. O’Neill did too.
As gamers beneath Clough, O’Neill would simmer as he noticed Robertson get away with homicide whereas the nice man turned a blind eye. O’Neill felt as if he could not transfer with out the scrutiny of his supervisor’s arched eyebrow. Robertson? Completely different guidelines utilized.
In administration O’Neill and Robertson weren’t fairly Clough and Taylor and by no means presupposed to be. There was, nonetheless, a well-recognized ying and yang that may by no means be pressured, constructed or purchased.
O’Neill will mourn the lack of his pricey pal. Forest and their following will really feel the heavy melancholy of the severing of one other thread to their storied previous.
Clough – gone now for 21 years – described Robertson as the best he ever knew. Souness stated he ‘may have performed for any membership on this planet and I imply Actual Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich’.
Solely the courageous would disagree although whether or not anybody else aside from Clough may have totally uncovered the magic buried beneath the feigned indifference could be a debate value having.
Robertson and Forest are woven collectively in historical past like Nottingham and lace. One with out the opposite would by no means have been remotely the identical.
