Souness tried to sign John Robertson from Newcastle

[bigTAM weeTAM]

If memory serves I believe his older brother Chris played a handful of games for us in the 70s. Didn't he come on as a sub in a cup final v Celtic and hit the bar with a header?

77 final with the dodgy pen

 

[SecondBestIsNothing]

Always seen him as a pound shop version of Ally (I probably didn't have to make the meme to explain that).

This meme implies that Hearts were trying to sign McCoist

#PedanticLoyal

 

[SouthEast Jim]

And they never got past the first round of a tournament. Same as now really.

Not really, in 92 only 8 teams qualified so just getting there meant you were effectively quarter finals.
To qualify that team topped a group including Hagi's Romania, Stoichkov's Bulgaria and a decent Swiss team. Light years away from now.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Not really, in 92 only 8 teams qualified so just getting there meant you were effectively quarter finals.
To qualify that team topped a group including Hagi's Romania, Stoichkov's Bulgaria and a decent Swiss team. Light years away from now.

I get that but every other country had to qualify in the same system.

They've just always been better than we are.

 

[DEJA BLUE]

John Robertson was a superb striker, a cracking finisher. You couldn’t help but admire him and the things he was doing for hearts

He would have done a good job for us, hugely underrated, gave us alot of tough times especially at tynecastle, our defence must have hated playing against him.

 

[truebluerfc]

If we did in fact bid for Robertson, it would’ve been to replace Davie Cooper

 

[mfgorm]

My recollection is we were keen on him, but he was outwith our budget and he was keen to come to Ibrox.

 

[Pennine Walk]

He was and it the bar with a header

He was and hit the bar with a header

You might have been there yourself Robert , if you were you would have been a young one like myself.
If i remember right that header from Robertson was up the other end.

 

[Blue Lew]

"Rangers came in at £500,000, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee United came in at £600,000. Rangers was very interesting, Graeme Souness was there, but they weren’t prepared to raise their offer," he recalled.
"When the chairman told me about the bids, it was Rangers out of the three that I wanted to speak to but the offer was too low. Wallace [Mercer, the Hearts chairman] eventually went that wee bit extra to get me back and the stars aligned.”

Hibs tranfer record is 700,000. In 2001.
Dundee United's transfer record is 750,000. In 1995.
Aberdeen's transfer record is 1,000,000. In 1995.

Murray was our chairman FFS. They weren't outbidding us on anything.

As you rightly say, we weren’t outbid. I don't think people are grasping the fact that we didn’t think he was worth more than £500k and refused to budge.

 

[subversive_bear]

I think St Mirren coined in a bit on their Scottish Cup winning side over the following years. Ferguson probably the first in 1988 and then Lambert by 1993.
I think they just ran things pretty well for a period of time - the Archibald and Victor signings were something else though.
They also brought in Gudmunder Torfassen (sp) and Thomas Stickroth around that time - both for reasonable money.

%^*& knows what happened to them being sensible right enough.

St Mirren had some very shady parasitic people around them during the 90's.

Dodgy shadow directors, associates of ex-Celtic & St Mirren manager's account brother. Taxis and motor parts people etc.

Asset-strippers.

 

[barcode]

If true, we clearly valued the player at a certain amount. It wasn't about being outbid, it was about sticking to our valuation and not paying over the odds. If we really really were desperate, we would have upped it easily.

 

[JimmyBuffetloyal]

A crowd of us went along to watch a game at the old Videodrome at that time.They had a panel of Souness ,John Robertson, Bill McMurdo possibly and Chick Young
The comments, shared jokes and body language suggested that the deal was done with Rangers. I expected it to be in the paper the next day. We were well surprised when it didn't happen

 

[david1982]

Think he was unlucky that Scotland seemed to have an abundance of quality up front in those days.
Super Ally, Super Mo, McClair, Nicholas...even McAvennie was ahead of him I seem to recall. You also had Fleck & McInally in the mix

David Speedie and Graeme Sharp were another 2 decent Scottish strikers.

 

[BroomloanWATP]

Robbo is a good guy.

Think he was unlucky that Scotland seemed to have an abundance of quality up front in those days.
Super Ally, Super Mo, McClair, Nicholas...even McAvennie was ahead of him I seem to recall. You also had Fleck & McInally in the mix

Now we've got Che Adams and Lyndon f.ucking Dykes

 

[Homelander]

Always seen him as a pound shop version of Ally (I probably didn't have to make the meme to explain that).

I've read this meme 5 times and still can't make out what it's saying

 

[The Blue Iceberg]

Remember him watching an away european game in the old Edmiston house, came across as very pro Rangers, might have had Murdo Macloud as his agent with him too

Bill McMurdo?

 

[Arkanoid]

Meh he didn't divert the CV course of History

 

[JamboReid1874]

I reckon the wee fella would’ve crawled the length of the M8 on broken glass to sign for us. I could be wrong though.

What say @JamboReid1874?

As tough as it is to admit, I think if there had been the situation where he had gone to Ibrox rather than Newcastle it would have turned out much differently. The move south just isn’t suited for some.

He certainly wouldn’t have ended up back with us as soon as he did because he would have been a good player for Rangers imo.

 

[BigDGrant]

He was a very good poacher/finisher. Probably only second to Super back in the day.

 

[Treble Kings]

That would've been a great signing as far as I'm concerned. Great player

 

[WilkinsBullet]

Anyone remember that?
I don't remember talk of it at the time although I was young. John has a new book out so doing a bit of press. We bid 500k. Other Scottish teams outbid us the sheep and Hearts (changed days). He said in an interview in Guardian today out of the 3 it was us he was interested in talking to most but we wouldn't up it.
Know we had Ally but he would've been a good signing imo.

Yes. This was in the press at the time. As was the discussion over how McCoist, Fleck and Robertson would all fit in. At that time there were all kinds of rumours suggesting Souness wanted McCoist out. Believe it or not there was intense speculation that McCoist was being punted to Aberdeen. Hard to believe in today's context but back then the money gaps weren't so big and Aberdeen were well off and a good side. They were able to spend good money on English based players such as Charlie Nicholas and Peter Nicholas. At the time those were huge signings.

 

[Chesterfield loyal]

Bill McMurdo?

Sorry, yes that's the fella

 

[Scoot]

Wee Robbo was a cracking goalscorer in the league to be fair to him.

He was not on McCoist's level but he, much like Billy Dodds a decade later, would score goals for us easily.

I concur with everything you said here....and Billy Dodds was the immediate comparison that first sprung to mind.

 

[hot orange]

I'm sorry, other Scottish teams outbid us ?

Didn't happen.

Here we go. Robertson a liar then?

Rangers may not have wanted him as much as he thought.


You know best.

 

[Noddy]

I concur with everything you said here....and Billy Dodds was the immediate comparison that first sprung to mind.

Billy Dodds couldn't lace John Robertson's boots.

 

[bluestory]

Billy Dodds couldn't lace John Robertson's boots.

Exactly. Just mental!

 

[BlueSevenTwo]

Billy Dodds couldn't lace John Robertson's boots.

Billy Dodds couldn’t lace his own boots.

 

[talkingsportsjacket]

Not well liked is wee John.

 

[Noddy]

Not well liked is wee John.

Who by?

 

[St Andrews Bear]

Not well liked is wee John.

I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word against him ever. Not even a hibee which is saying something

 

[Noddy]

I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word against him ever. Not even a hibee which is saying something

I think we can file the "not well liked is wee John" under 'bollocks'.

 

[Brant Hurley]

Another thing that popped into my head after reading your comments mate, when you think back, how did Hibs and St. Mirren afford Stevie Archibald? How did St. Mirren afford Victor!

I wonder how the negotiations went with their agents? We want 10-20% of the gate (depending on the game) to sign? Couldn’t have been down to basic salary?

Saints also had Gunni Torfason, Thomas Stickroth & Hay managing. Brown envelopes?
Edit. Apologies to Rab Spackman, who beat me to the punch with his post 96.

 

[bluestory]

Not well liked is wee John.

He's probably one of the most universally respected ex Scottish players out there.

Strange comment.

 

[Dumfriesbear]

John is a gentleman and a brother. Never let a bad word be said against him.

 

[RSEA]

One from memory here and i might be wrong. Older bears might remember or correct me.
Was Chris Robertson who played for Rangers not his brother?
I'm sure he came on as a sub in the 77 Scottish cup final and went close with a header.

Yes he was