‘BRUCE HAS BEEN BIG INFLUENCE’

ANDY ROBERTSON has become a world-class leftback under Jurgen Klopp, but Steve Bruce also had a big influence on the star, when he signed him for Hull City from Dundee United.

Robertson (with Bruce, right, in their Tigers days) looks back on some less useful advice his former boss gave him when the Reds faced Newcastle last season...

“Some managers have a knack of saying the right thing at the right time to get you to respond in the right way,” said Robertson.

“The gaffer at Liverpool is obviously like that and another is Steve Bruce, who was a big influence on me at Hull

City. This time, as manager of Newcastle, he wouldn’t be giving me any motivational speeches to spur me on.

“But he did manage to give me a bit of laughter in the heat of the game. I was taking a throw-in, just in front of the dugouts, when I heard his familiar Geordie tone. “‘Hey Robbo, any chance you could stop running?!’ “I turned around and there he was, grinning from ear to ear. “I couldn’t stop myself from bursting out laughing. ‘Sorry gaffer,’ I said, before launching the ball up the line and racing forward to join the attack.

“Some apologies are more genuine than others. Knowing Steve, he wouldn’t have expected anything else from me.

“He played such an important role in my career, bringing me into English football with Hull City and helping me improve my game to such a level that a club like Liverpool ended up signing me.

“Hull came in for me when I was at Dundee United and, to be honest, English football scared me a bit at that time.

“But Steve convinced me, telling me I was definitely good enough, and that he would look after me.

“I genuinely think that if he had not been so positive and encouraging, I would have stayed in Scotland.

“Some managers have that ability to get you on board just through their own integrity and Steve definitely falls into that category.

“I’m definitely indebted to him, just not enough to stop running because he tells me to!”