Andy Robertson leaves Liverpool with pride, no regrets after nine-year journey

Andy Robertson will say goodbye to Liverpool on Sunday after 377 appearances, leaving as one of the club’s finest left-backs with “no regrets, no bitterness.” The 32-year-old Scotland captain acknowledged being “gutted” but expressed pride at overcoming initial insecurity to cement his place in Anfield folklore. “I’m glad that one of our Egyptian friends might take a bit more of the limelight. I can just sneak underneath that,” he said.

Rejected by Celtic at 15, Robertson tweeted after his Queen’s Park debut that “life at this age is rubbish with no money.” He became a £8 million signing from Hull City and is widely considered Liverpool’s finest left-back, arguably the best in the world at his peak.

Robertson cited the Barcelona comeback, Champions League triumph, and first league title in 30 years as highlights, but said the best feeling was “climbing the mountain” with Jürgen Klopp’s all-conquering team. “Nobody climbed higher or harder,” he reflected.

“We were on the most amazing journey ever, all together,” Robertson said. “When we started out Mo Salah didn’t sign as the best player in the world. Virgil van Dijk had the potential but wasn’t the best centre-back. Alisson wasn’t the best goalkeeper. Trent wasn’t the best right-back. Hendo was still finding his feet as captain. We were all just on this journey from the bottom to the very top together.”

“Every day we came in knowing we were getting better. We’d beat teams in the tunnel. Genuinely. When I speak to my Scotland teammates, they were lining up and thinking: ‘We’re going to need to run our socks off today to get anything.’ And more often than not they didn’t get anything,” he added.

“We had an unbelievable environment to express ourselves, to play with freedom, but we knew we had to work at 100%. That was from the manager, the coaches, and all the staff bought into it. Everyone was on the same page and we just made magical things happen,” Robertson said.

Robertson acknowledged the current Liverpool team lacks that feeling. “In terms of the club I am leaving behind, I think we are not at the 2017 stage, we are at the transition stage,” he said, referencing the death of teammate Diogo Jota in a car crash last July that cast a dark pall over the campaign.

“This year hasn’t worked out for a variety of reasons. We can’t hide away from it, and it is not an excuse, but what we went through in the summer no team will ever go through. No member of staff will go through. I hope they never go through it because the devastation we went through … football didn’t matter. We didn’t care about football for weeks,” Robertson said.

“As footballers we have a duty, we have to move on and we managed that. We started the season fairly well although it was still an emotional time for us. The Bournemouth game was ridiculously emotional with all of Jots’ family being there. After the 20th minute you saw a real dip in performance because of the emotional impact,” he added.

“But then the season has been inconsistent. We bought players that we all got excited about, and they will all have an unbelievable career at Liverpool. I have no doubt about that. But they are also young. The one thing I get annoyed about is that footballers do not control their price tag. The market controls it. These players will be successful but they probably need a bit of time,” Robertson said.

“Then some players who have played at a ridiculously high level haven’t played to that level. If you add all that in then we have had an inconsistent season and that is the huge frustration. We have been too easy to play against. There is no hiding away from that but I believe they have more than enough in that changing room to be successful for Liverpool again,” he said.

Robertson received a farewell gift this week from Trent Alexander-Arnold: an image of them celebrating the 2019 Champions League final victory over Tottenham. The message almost moved him to tears. The pair pushed each other to world-class levels and reworked the role of a full-back.

“Everyone still talks about it because I think that was the moment people could see I could potentially be the left-back for years to come,” Robertson said of his press against Manchester City in January 2018, when he chased City players across the Anfield pitch. “Fans left that stadium thinking: ‘We could have a proper left-back here.'”

“I believe that was the game I finally belonged in a Liverpool jersey. That was the moment I really felt: ‘I belong at this football club, I am worthy of the shirt and I’m worthy of being here.’ Everything went straight up from there. That’s why when I look back now, I do so with a massive smile on my face,” he said.

A new mural of Robertson near Anfield reads: “Born in Glasgow, Made in Liverpool.” His connection with the city is another source of pride. “Liverpool and Glasgow are very similar cities and they are very similar people with similar things that are important to them,” he said.

“I think that’s why it has been so easy for me to fall in love with this city. I’m very fortunate that a lot of people in this city have then fallen in love with me. I think they saw a player who, if they could get a chance to put on a Liverpool shirt, they would play similar to me in terms of giving 100% and always being at it. I put a lot of pressure on myself to try and do that and I’m very grateful to the people for how they accepted me,” Robertson said.