Liverpool superstar Andrew Robertson has opened up on the rejection that could’ve ended his career in football.
The left-back was on the books at Celtic until he was 15. Robertson was one year from earning a professional contract at Parkhead, before being told he simply wasn’t good enough and released from the club.
It forced Robbo to take the scenic route to the top. He ended up starring for Queen’s Park and Dundee United in Scotland, before being a standout at Hull City down south. This attracted Liverpool to come in for him, and he’s been a part of Jurgen Klopp’s revolution for the last two years.
Both of those years will have seen Robertson feature in two Champions League finals too. And writing in The Players Tribune, he opened up on the rejection from Parkhead.
“I joined the youth team as a wee lad, just bombing around the pitch pretending I was at Celtic Park. Over time, I found my way into midfield, and in my last season with Celtic I bounced between the middle and left side quite a bit. They’d brought in a new technical director that year and apparently I just wasn’t in the plans for whatever reason.
“At my end-of-year interview, the coaches let me know they wouldn’t be bringing me back. I was 15. One year away from getting a pro contract. One year from being a proper Celtic player.
“But it was over, just like that, and it hurt like hell. Mum hated to see us cry. Still does. But she saw me shed more than a few tears that day. I remember she grabbed me a takeout curry from my favourite place to try to cheer me up. It was midweek, too. I almost never got midweek curry. I couldn’t even eat much of that. That’s how she knew how bad I was hurting.”
One of the club’s great blunders
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The truth is that clubs and youth coaches get too much criticism for failing to spot players that would turn out to haunt them in the future. Robertson is definitely one of those for Celtic.
But the Hoops support shouldn’t look upon Robertson’s success and be disappointed. We should look at it with pride. After all, this is one of our own in the Celtic family. He’s still a huge Celtic supporter, and frequently tweets about the club. His success in football is one of the great comeback stories, and as a fellow Celt the club will be proud of him.
Hopefully we can one day see Robertson in a Celtic jersey. He did state that he would like to wear the jersey at some stage, but he would also take the chance to finish his career at Liverpool (Daily Mail). Therefore, it doesn’t seem likely we’ll nab him.
We had our chance with Robertson, and he’s just one of the famous ones to have gotten away from our clutches. John McGinn could end up doing similar too after his promotion with Aston Villa and a Wembley playoff final winner to his name.
At the end of the day, that’s football. You win some and you lose some. But there will always likely be a feeling of regret in the youth ranks at Parkhead for letting Robertson slip through.
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