Picasso of football John Robertson dies aged 72
Picasso of football John Robertson dies aged 72
Tributes pour in for John Robertson, the Scotland and Nottingham Forest winger once hailed as a Picasso of the game, who helped Forest win the European Cup twice.
John Robertson, a winger who starred for Scotland, Nottingham Forest and Derby County, has died at 72. He was described by manager Brian Clough as \"a Picasso of our game\" and was central to Forest's European Cup triumphs. Robertson delivered the cross from which Trevor Francis netted the winner in the 1979 final against Malmo, a moment that helped Forest defend the trophy the following season. Across his club career he combined pace with intelligent positioning, earning a reputation as one of the finest deliverers of a football the game had seen. For Scotland, he scored a winning goal against England in 1981 and added a strike at the 1982 World Cup finals against New Zealand, earning 28 caps before moving into coaching.
After hanging up his boots, he went into management and scouting, serving as assistant to former Forest teammate Martin O'Neill with Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa. His 2012 biography, Supertramp, recalls Clough's description of him as a 'scruffy, unfit, uninterested waste of time' before he became one of the finest deliverers of a football—'as fine as the Brazilians or the Italians'. Forest captain John McGovern once described him as 'like Ryan Giggs but with two good feet'. His legacy lives on in the memories of fans who remember those European nights and a winger who could unlock defences with a perfect cross.
