ROBERTSON’S INDIAN SUMMER
DAVID Robertson’s time at Rangers was under the guidance of legendary manager Walter Smith and his assistant Archie Knox. Both commanded instant respect and expected their players representing the Ibrox club to do so in a manner befitting the jersey.
As Real Kashmir manager in India’s I-League himself now, Robertson’s own standards have not slipped. His players, on the other hand, cannot be credited with having the same values at the same level.
It’s Robertson’s main source of frustration. Which says everything about the man, given the fact that he’s working in a war-torn country where first-world amenities like wifi can be switched off by the government for days on end, at a moment’s notice, often making it impossible for David to even phone home to Aberdeen to chat with wife Kim and his kids.
“When I first went, the team was full of local players maybe not at the greatest level,” Robertson said. “There were no training kits, there were no footballs. It was very difficult but I think the whole journey to get to where we are has been an amazing experience.
“It’s almost the perfect job but it’s in a tough place. It’d be hard to move anywhere else, day-to-day the training is good but obviously there are mishaps. Common sense can be a bit of an issue and you’ve got to adapt to that. But it’s the challenges that spur you on, you think you’ve seen it all and then, every day, something else happens.
“The league itself is probably bottom end of the Premiership in Scotland, top end of the Championship. The hardest part for me is the professionalism of everything. The local players have ability but they don’t know what professional football is, they’ve got this mentality that, even though they train every day, they feel they’re not classed as professionals because they don’t play for Real Madrid or Liverpool.
“They just think, ‘It’s just a local team’, but they’re on TV every week, there’s a lot of media coverage. So the professionalism and even things like time keeping. Players would show up late and I’d fine them and it wouldn’t make any difference because they just didn’t understand.
“It wasn’t until we got some foreign players in that the local lads realised what professional football is. They’d be late for training, forget boots, forget kits. Now some of them come early, stay late, do the same stretching as the foreign players so it’s good to see the difference. You take it for granted. Basic things like someone taking the footballs, it should be second nature, but every day I’ve got to check that everything gets done. It’s more than just coaching players.”
Robertson, who has been back in Aberdeen for the past six weeks through lockdown, has consistently maintained an interest in Scottish football and his former employers. Proof that anywhere in the world you’ll find someone who cares about Rangers and, by association, their rivals.
He watched, with great interest, the title race last season and is complimentary of manager Steven Gerrard and the work he has done in improving the squad. All that’s left to do is try and wrest the silverware away from Celtic this term to halt their hopes of a fabled 10 in a row. Robertson himself was, of course, part of the Rangers side which sealed their own nine. And he knows the pressures that come with desperately trying to secure 10.
“I think Steven Gerrard has done a very good job, they were quite far behind and he’s got them back closer to Celtic,” Robertson added. “I always say it was a little bit like when Graeme Souness came in. He was a fantastic player and commands immediate respect. Because of who he is, he’s got to get that extra bit of time if there’s any blips.
“It was just such a strange one after the winter break
Common sense can be a bit of an issue. You’ve got to adapt