Manager of Hibs? I'd not have a problem

AS A player, John Robertson was never thought of as the dispassionate type. He thrived on his emotional commitment to Hearts, bubbled over with delight when he scored, cried tears of joy when at last his team won a trophy.

And he was the scourge of Hibs, the scorer of 27 goals in the Edinburgh derby, the man who epitomised Hearts' long stretches of domination - the 17 games without defeat from 1983 to 1987, and then the even more remarkable 22 in a row from 1989 to 1994.

That passion for the game is what has driven Robertson the manager too - at Inverness Caley Thistle, at Hearts, at Ross County and now at Livingston. It sounds almost counter-intuitive, therefore, when he suggests that the reason for his extraordinary success against Hibs was in fact his ability to remain the calm centre of the hurricane.

"The reason I think I was successful in the derbies is I didn't get caught up in the hype," Robertson explains. "I always said to myself there's mayhem on the terracing, in the media and on the pitch, 100 miles an hour, so just relax. There'll be a mistake, and when a mistake comes along, be ready to punish it.

"I hope I was never one to gloat when we did beat Hibs. When we had that marvellous run of 22 games without defeat, I wasn't shouting from the rooftops and ramming it down their throat. When you score a couple of goals, you're not giving it yahoo. It was a job to be done and the job was done."

It was surely the fact that he had a foot in both camps which helped Robertson retain his equilibrium in the derby. His affection for Hibs was well known, and at one time he seemed set to sign for the club - until fate intervened, in the form of a certain chairman.

"There's the famous thing when I was training at Easter Road, the famous Tom Hart thing about signing or you don't wear a Hibs strip ever again. That's just football. That's fate. Would my career have been anything like it was had I signed for Hibs? Who knows?"

Would the teenage striker have signed for Hibs had Hart been a touch more diplomatic? That, too, is hypothetical. If Robertson had gone through his professional career in green and white, though, his footballing life might have become less balanced.

As it was, he can claim to have served both teams - on the terraces in one case, on the pitch in the other. To diehards such supposedly mixed loyalties may be unthinkable, but to Robertson it is eminently reasonable, and stems from his commitment to his city.

"I like Edinburgh. I love Edinburgh as a city, I love the teams in it, and I have a huge affection for Livingston as well. I was a Meadowbank ballboy.

"If Hearts are not winning trophies I hope Hibs are winning trophies. if that means I'm an Edinburgh supporter well yeah, I am. My big brother's Hibs-daft, and some of my mates are Hibs fans. I went along to Hibs games; it's been well documented.

"My dad died when I was 14. My brother George went to Hibs games, so I had a choice. I could either travel to watch our brother Chris play for the reserves, go with George to Easter Road every second Saturday, or go shopping with my mum and my four sisters.

"It was a no-brainer. At that time Hibs had a right good side. You had Pat Stanton playing, Erich Schaedler, John Brownlie, John Blackley, Alex Edwards.

"Look at that time, late 1970s. Hibs were one of the top sides at the time and Hearts were having a poor run.

"One game I remember well is Leeds United at Easter Road. Billy Bremner ran the game, Stanton missed a penalty, and Leeds were through. My dad was still alive then and he took me to that game with Chris and George. He was the only man smiling walking up Easter Road afterwards because Hibs were out and he was Hearts-daft.

"We're a mixed household, and we were brought up to say yeah, well you can support your team, that's fine. I think that's great."

He knows such tolerance has not always been the way for some adherents of either club, but believes there is at least greater general harmony now than in the past. "If you look at the rivalry between the clubs, there was a nasty period through the 1970s and '80s when it was a social thing. I don't think it was just Hibs and Hearts - there was a lot of unrest, a lot of problems. We've come through the casual thing and that's gone now. Yeah, there are still odd pockets of fans who'll watch each other for 90 minutes instead of watching the game, but generally speaking I think the nastiness has gone."

He knows that there may be some residual bitterness against him from Hibs fans, and that might influence the Easter Road board against offering him employment, either now or in the future. But, while stressing his commitment to his present employers at Livingston, he insists he would never rule out working for Hibs or any other team.

"Not at all. The team that everybody goes on about is Hibs - 'Could you manage Hibs?' I've not got a problem managing Hibs. Hibs fans might have a problem, or maybe some of the Hibs board, but I've not. One of the best Scotland managers ever, Willie Ormond, managed both teams."

He expects an exciting game - and goals - when the latest episode of the derby takes place at Easter Road tomorrow. "When was the last time it was 0-0? Last season it was two home wins each, with the deciding one being the semi-final. Hearts won it 4-0 and went on to win the cup, and I'm sure if Hibs had won it they would more than likely have beaten Gretna in the final as well.

"It's a good period for Edinburgh football. Both sets of teams have got good players. Hibs are exciting, brash, arrogant at times in the right way, and at Hearts the Romanovs have brought in big players and have young lads sneaking through too.

"So there's a real, well-balanced rivalry in Edinburgh at the moment, and that's the way it should be. It's great to see the Edinburgh clubs stealing the column inches off the Glasgow clubs."

Some column inches will surely come Robertson's way shortly when the first four inductees into the Hearts Hall of Fame are announced. One of 14 nominees, he appears sure to be part of the quartet who will inaugurate the project. As well as feeling proud to be considered, though, he is also fascinated by the whole concept, and believes - as another nominee, Craig Levein, also suggested this week - it should be extended to other clubs.

"You look at the nominations for the Hall of Fame and think that's great. It brings me back to my dad, who always wanted one of his sons to play for Hearts. Two of us played in the same game for 17 minutes and that would probably have been his proudest moment.

"To think that his little boy could have beaten Willie Bauld's record, Jimmy Wardhaugh's record, Alfie Conn's record and finished as the top goalscorer would have freaked him out. And to be nominated for the Hall of Fame is fantastic - I feel very, very honoured.

"It's one of these fascinating things about football in general. Whatever team you support, you could sit down and say right, who are we having in our Hall of Fame?

"For me, the first one I would pick for Hearts would be Dave Mackay. The players in the 1950s and '60s were the standard-bearers for Hearts: that was the club's golden era, when they won the league, the Scottish Cup and the League Cup, and my generation were trying to emulate that.

"We came close in the league in 1986, we lost two cup finals, and then in 1998 we got there and won the Scottish Cup, which was fantastic.

"Then if we're talking about a Hibs Hall of Fame, you've got to look at the best Hibs side that most people can remember, the 1970s side. Again, it's a no-brainer: the first player for me would be Pat Stanton. And then you could take your pick from that '70s side.

"Hibs have had some players who have really captured the imagination. Franck Sauzee was 35, 36 when he played at Hibs, and he was miles ahead of anything there. I'd love to have seen a 24-year-old Franck Sauzee, and I'd love to have seen a 24-year-old Russell Latapy as well. And we've got a Hibs legend here in Arthur Duncan, our physio. Flier was every bit as good as well.

"The Hall of Fame idea excites the imagination, and football should be about excitement. Hearts fans are having a great time at the moment deciding it should be him and not him, and Hibs fans would be exactly the same.

"It's like if I said give me your all-time greatest Hibs 11 or Hearts 11. No two people would pick the same team. If you had a lot of 20-year-olds deciding just from the players they'd seen, some of their teams might be close, but if you had people who remembered back to the 1960s or further you'd come up with a real conundrum.

"So I'm excited, I'm happy, and I'm a real enthusiast for Edinburgh football at the moment."

And of course he is a real enthusiast for Livingston as well, and appears to be relishing the challenge of one of the toughest First Division promotion races in recent times. "We've started well. It's a tough league - look at the history of the last couple of teams to go down from the SPL.

"Dundee struggled last year and have improved this year because they've brought young lads through who now have a bit of experience. Partick Thistle had a double relegation, which shows you how tough this league is, and how tough it is to recover from losing your Premier League status. It's over £1million in revenue, TV money etc that we're losing. But it's a level playing field in this division now, perhaps apart from Gretna but even they're starting to feel the pinch now."

Yet, while he is sure it will be a hard battle, he will not compromise by resorting to trench warfare. "I'm relaxed, because I believe in my managerial style. I believe in entertaining the public, because that's what the public wants. People work very hard to earn their money, and I'm determined that when they come to watch our football team and spend their money on tickets, they should be rewarded with as good a footballing performance as possible."

That was, after all, his philosophy as a player too. Even if Hearts supporters felt just that little bit more rewarded by his efforts than Hibs fans did.

Taken from the Scotsman