A winning mentality we should learn from
WANT more. Get more. Be better. Be the best. That’s the attitude that had Andy Robertson knocking on Jurgen Klopp’s door at Melwood after playing in just three games out of 15 following his arrival from relegated Hull City in the summer of 2017.
It’s the same attitude that had him, when the red half of Merseyside was still trying to focus on the ordeal of getting a teabag and milk into the same cup through Friday morning’s bleary eyes and beery miasma, explaining why Liverpool’s first title in 30 years meant more than lifting the Champions League and why winning it every season now is a must.
It’s also the kind of attitude we need to instil into more of our young people, sporting and otherwise. No matter how un-Scottish it may seem.
You’ve never arrived. You can’t stand still. It’s not about being a superstar. In fact, tearing down superstars is your mission. Because it will be the grafters and the doers and those who never let up on themselves that will inherit the earth. Talent is only a part of it.
Robertson is now a history-maker at Anfield, but it’s not enough. It can’t be enough. For him, at the age of 26, this is only the beginning.
That’s not a boast. Just the product of an intensity and a hunger and an honesty — with himself and those around him — that is still all too infrequent inside professional football in this country.
There is nothing yet to suggest that Scotland’s painful absence from major tournaments will change with Robertson as the captain, of course, but his very presence gives you some semblance of hope.
That was apparent the very first time he wore the armband — in a 4-0 friendly loss to Belgium in September 2018.
Hanging around outside the home dressing room at Hampden on a Scotland match-night has long been an exercise in trying to smile while your heart is aching and your soul has gone back home on the first bus.
Whether it was Berti Vogts or Craig Levein or Gordon Strachan in charge, player after player trooped out to insist that things were definitely on the up despite campaign after campaign going down the toilet.
Same script. Same platitudes. Delivered with the same thousandyard stares. There was more of it at the start of Alex McLeish’s second spell as manager. Loads of it that night Belgium brushed us aside. But not from Robertson.
He was furious. Even paler than usual. And he didn’t attempt to hide it. In the same way, in the wake of that ensuing 3-0 demolition in Kazakhstan, he insisted ‘the country is at rock-bottom just now in terms of football’.
To get better, you have to be honest about where you really are. And there hasn’t been enough of that going on here for quite some time.
John Collins is another Scottish player who performed at a high level, winning Ligue 1 in France with Monaco and playing in a Champions League semi-final.
He learned the language before he went there. Bought into the lifestyle. He might not be everyone’s cup of tea — particularly the Hibs players who opposed him as manager because, as he claims, he wouldn’t allow a Spanish training camp to turn into a ‘stag party’ — but we should listen when he explains why he will never manage here again.
‘The way I am, the demands I put on people and the type of training regime I would like to put in place wouldn’t go down too well, I don’t think, in Scotland,’ said Collins in an interview with the BBC.
‘Most teams in Scotland play Saturday, get Sundays off and get every Wednesday off.
‘That’s OK for the 11 that are playing, maybe, but you’ve got five subs and another five that are not playing. How are they supposed to get serious improvement done with a schedule like that?’
Robertson, then understudy to Alberto Moreno, wasn’t at the standard when he arrived at Liverpool, but he had a coach in Klopp whose gospel is built on what goes on inside the training ground.
Robertson learned from the intensity, used the competitiveness, vowed to do whatever it takes. All the while, in Scotland, everyone just kept harping on about how he used to work in Marks and Spencer.
It became embarrassing. Thank heavens it finally seems to have stopped.
Why fixate on Robertson’s past, in any case, when his present is far more interesting? His is a limitless drive built upon a strong emotional intelligence.
He is adored by supporters. He has been involved in helping out foodbanks. He contributes to the club’s charitable work. He strikes the right tone consistently.
He is not ashamed of his ambition, but there is no flashiness.
Just like other great sporting Scots such as Andy Murray, Chris Hoy and Liz McColgan. All people who built their careers on hard work and sacrifice and never, ever apologised for seeking to dominate their disciplines when others felt it was outwith their grasp.
‘(Liverpool) is the greatest club in the world and I want Scottish players to play here,’ said Robertson, a rallying call to a nation if ever there was one.
Yet, there is only one way that can happen. By them being like him. By committing. And by feeling no shame in letting everyone know they are out to be the best on the planet.