I CAN’T WAIT TO GET BACK
Lockdown left Robbo holed up in Kashmir for 49 days but with season starting he says..
DAVID ROBERTSON spent 49 days holed up in a hotel in a wartorn, remote part of India with his family desperate to get back to Scotland after he was trapped by the Covid-19 lockdown.
Just five months after making a 16-hour journey on a road from hell to the airport and catching a mercy f light back home, the former Rangers, Aberdeen and Scotland star will return this week for a new season with Real Kashmir.
Robbo understands why people might think he’s mad after he, footballer son Mason and wife Kym were stranded in Srinagar as the I-League season was shut down.
The 52- year- old, who has managed Real Kashmir for three years, had to wait until the British Government arranged a flight for expats, then faced a 16-hour journey to Amritsar on a glorified dirt road to catch the plane.
With the new season in India starting soon, Robertson has decided to return anyway.
He said: “As soon as the visas come through we head back to India.
“I know people might think we are mad going back there but I’ve got a loyalty to the club and the owner Sandeep Chattoo. They were the ones who gave me this opportunity.
“They’ve also had to make a huge effort to get the club back in the I-League for the new season and it’s only fair I do my bit too.
“We’ve got no income at all and the owner has put his neck on the line to keep the show going.
“I owe it to him to go back and to get the club to do as well as possible.
“I’ve been back in Scotland for months and I miss the football part of it plus Mason is going back too.
“The league season has changed this time. They have decided to play all the games in the one place this season, in Kolkata, which makes it a hell of a lot easier because there’s no travelling.”
Former Aberdeen and Rangers star Robertson reckons the sky’s the limit for the Indian game.
He said: “Indian football is on the up and up. Robbie Fowler has come in as manager of East Bengal in the Super League and Csaba Laszlo is in charge at Chennaiyin in the same league. Owen Coyle is the manager of Jamshedpur.
“Our ultimate aim is to end up in the Super League too, whether it’s with me or not.”
Meanwhile, former Rangers keeper Lionel Charbonnier insists Steven Gerrard has worked wonders at Ibrox, despite being sceptical about his appointment when it was announced.
Charbonnier, now a pundit on French TV, said: “At first, Steven Gerrard, I was like, ‘Hmm, this could be complicated’ but then we gave him time.
“This is a very cohesive team. The team is consistent but not only that, it’s consistently getting better. He’s the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
“When you want to build a house from the ground up, and you want it to last, you need a good foundation. This team has a good defensive foundation. It’s where we build good attacks from.”