Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
United coach was the right
MUCH of the work he does will be out of the limelight but his own career tells new Dundee United U/18 coach Scott Robertson he has one of the most important jobs at any football club.
Last week saw the midfielder hang up his boots to move into coaching as assistant to Craig Easton as they take charge of the young pros at Tannadice.
And, as he looks back on his time as a player, he believes it was the men who coached him as a teenager who had the biggest influence over him.
“It was a stage of my development, U/18 level, I realised how to play football,” says the former Dundee, United, Hibs and Raith Rovers man.
“The coaches I had back then were the ones that made it really enjoyable to me and left me thinking to myself about the things I had to do to make a career. I want to be that type of coach for the players here.”
While by his early 20s Scott was one of the most sought after young talents in the country, during his youth career it was far from certain he would make it in the full-time game.
The fact he had to battle to earn new deals as a kid at Dundee does, he believes, put him in a good position to judge those working under him now.
“It’s a huge ti me i n players’ development. Some boys mature right away and adapt to the full-time football and the expectation. There is pressure on them because they’re trying to impress – it’s mentally tough.
“Even for the ones who are, if they’re not getting the chances you have to maybe curb their frustration and tell them they just have to keep doing the things they have been. That was the case for me.
“I was fortunate enough to get a one-year contract and then another year and it was from there my career kicked off.
“There were boys who got three-year contracts and you thought they were doing better but the way things worked out I had a career in football and some of them didn’t.
“The coaches I had back then had a lot to do in making that happen.”
As much as he is relishing this new challenge, he does admit the decision to hang up his boots to take up coaching full-time was a big one.
And at Raith Rovers the feeling was he could again be a key player in their bid to get out of League One.