LIKE everyone of a Rangers persuasion, David Robertson was both delighted and relieved that Celtic failed in their bid to make Scottish football history and complete 10-In-A-Row in the 2020/21 campaign.

But Robertson, the former full-back who was an important member of the Ibrox teams which won nine consecutive titles during the 1990s, was particularly pleased.

It meant that his own place in the record books remained intact. 

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“I have selfish reasons for being happy about it,” he said. “With Celtic not getting the 10 it means I am still one of the players responsible for what is a record streak of title wins. If Celtic had completed 10-In-A-Row then Nine-In-A-Row would have been forgotten about.

“I spent six years at Rangers and I loved every minute of it. When I come across my medals in the house, when I open a drawer and see them, I realise how well we did.” 

The ex-Scotland defender reflects on what was a halcyon era for Rangers in his autobiography The Quiet Man Roars: The David Robertson story, which is released tomorrow, and it makes for required reading for any self-respecting supporter.

The Walter Smith sides he was a key component of are rightly considered to be among their greatest ever; they dominated domestically and achieved some noteworthy results in Europe as well.

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The unforgettable run the Govan outfit went on in the inaugural Champions League in the 1992/93 season – they were undefeated in all 10 of their fixtures, including in two Group A matches against eventual winners Marseille, and came agonisingly close to reaching the final – is recounted in great detail.

Will Rangers ever scale such heights in continental competition again? It is highly unlikely given the funds available to clubs in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain in modern football.

Yet, Robertson, who is now manager of Indian club Real Kashmir, feels that Steven Gerrard’s sides have actually achieved something that his teams were unable to in their performances in the Europa League in the past three seasons.

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“Steven has been fantastic for Rangers,” he said. “They haven’t scraped through in the league, they have won it by some distance. They have been tremendous in Europe as well. I think they are the first Rangers team to play great football and win comfortably in Europe. They don’t just edge through against teams.

“I suspect Steven’s time at Liverpool and the trophies he won both in England and in Europe has made him expect and demand a lot from his Rangers team regardless of the level or who the opposition is. Rangers push forward in Scotland a lot. But they do the same when they go abroad. It has been great to see.”

Robertson knows that Smith, who is recovering in hospital after undergoing an operation earlier this month, deserves enormous credit for the success that Rangers enjoyed when he was at Ibrox.

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“Walter was brilliant,” he said. “When I joined he told me: ‘You look after me and I’ll look after you’. And he was true to his word. If we played a game up in Aberdeen he would let me stay up for a couple of days to see my family. His man management skills were second to none.

“The other thing that struck me about him was that when you went through bad spells, which didn’t happen very often, but it did happen, he didn’t show that he was under pressure.

“I can remember once losing to AEK Athens, Celtic and Falkirk in the space of a week in 1994. We got a hard time from fans and the media, but he never let it show outwardly that he was feeling the heat. A lot of managers do, but he had that inner strength.”

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The Rangers players had that quality in abundance too. Robertson started out in the game at his home town club Aberdeen and played alongside Willie Miller and Alex McLeish there. But in The Quiet Man Roars he reveals that Richard Gough and John Brown were the best centre half partnership he played with. 

“Willie was coming towards the end of his career when I played with him,” he said. “But he read the game so well and was a winner. Alex was great too. They were both full of encouragement to me as a young player.

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“Richard Gough was the same as Willie. He was so passionate about the club. You could see what it meant to him when Rangers won a league or a cup. When you are a supporter it changes how you feel.

“John Brown was one of those guys who played for the jersey. He played with injuries for years. He just patched himself up as best he could and played. He was another guy who was just a born winner. Those type of players in the game now are few and far between.”

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Gough, Brown and Robertson were all instrumental in Rangers beating English champions Leeds United home and away to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League and then going unbeaten against Club Brugge, CSKA Moscow and Marseille.

“I think having so many big games in quick succession, particularly come the end of the campaign, made a difference,” he said. “We were playing big Champions League, Premier Division and League Cup games back-to-back.

“I can remember we played Aberdeen, Celtic and Leeds United in the space of a fortnight in November. You didn’t have time to think about it. But in the first game against Marseille it was the supporters who got us back into it after we fell two goals behind in the second-half.

“We got close to getting to the final. I think we were a very good team. We perhaps didn’t have exceptional individual players like we did later on when Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup came, but we all worked hard for each other.”

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Playing with Danish internationalist Laudrup for three seasons in Glasgow is unsurprisingly a treasured memory for Robertson.

“My game was basically this – get the ball to Stuart McCall and run,” he said. “Stuart would get it to Laudrup and he could pass the ball through the eye of a needle. He was a dream to play with. You knew when you overlapped that more often than not he would find you. 

“I was encouraged to get forward all the time. On the right, Gary Stevens, Dave McPherson and Alex Cleland were told to do the same. In European games you naturally had to defend a bit more. But I never felt that we were a defensive team.”

The Quiet Man Roars: The David Robertson Story by David Robertson with Alistair Aird is published by Pitch Publishing and is available from tomorrow.

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