It is the simplest question that prompts the dam to burst. Andy Robertson has been recounting the journey of a lifetime, telling stories about the days he conquered his insecurities to feel like he was invincible, when his tone changes.
Robertson’s Liverpool career ends this weekend and his departure will be keenly felt. He was the dressing-room joker, the quiz-master who enlivened coach journeys by hosting games of Tenable and the down-to-earth workhorse who many on the Kop believed represented them most closely.
“We were on this most amazing journey ever, all together,” he explains. “Climbing that mountain was the best feeling ever, as a team we were just starting to click. We could see everyone improving, every single day. That was the best thing about it. We’d beat teams in the tunnel.
“I speak to my Scotland team-mates, all of them [told me] when they lined up they would look at us and think: ‘We need to run our socks off to get anything’ but, more often than not, they didn’t. We went into games, not with arrogance or cockiness, it was just: ‘There’s no way we can get beat today’.”
He was right. Think back to Barcelona and that astonishing comeback in 2019, Robertson’s ruffling of Lionel Messi’s hair in the 4-0 win became an emblem that nobody was going to stand in Liverpool’s way. So why does it feel different now?
Before speaking, Scotland’s captain pauses. He is sat with his back straight in a chair, arms folded. Having formulated his thoughts, Robertson proceeds to speak for almost four minutes, his answer running to almost 600 words. There are no excuses, just a reminder of what is important in life.
‘The devastation we went through... football didn’t matter’
“In terms of the club I’m leaving behind I think we are not at the stage [when I signed] in 2017,” he says. “We are at the transition stage. We won the league last year, the environment was very similar. We had to go at 100 per cent in every game and the messages were very clear from the manager.
“Now this year hasn’t worked out for a variety of reasons. We can’t hide away from it – and it isn’t an excuse – but what we went through in the summer, I hope no team or member of staff will ever go through it. The devastation we went through... football didn’t matter.”
This was not the plan to talk about Diogo Jota, a kindred spirit who loved nothing more than being alongside Robertson, but it is crucial we do. There is no timeframe on bereavement and it should not be overlooked how emotionally intolerable things have been at times for this group.
“We didn’t care about football for weeks,” Robertson says, revisiting the aftermath of the car crash last July that claimed the lives of Jota and his brother André Silva. “None of us wanted to train. That was the reality. You were getting treatment off physios and they didn’t want to treat you [as they were too upset].
“As footballers we have a duty, we have to move on. We have to keep going and we managed that. The [opening] Bournemouth game was ridiculously emotional with all of Jots’ family being there.
“I think in the 20th minute [when the Liverpool fans chanted for Jota, who wore the No 20 shirt] you saw a real dip in our performance after that [even though Liverpool won 4-2] because of the emotional impact it had on all of us. But then the season has been up and down, it has been inconsistent.”
Again, he stresses, this is not about making excuses. But listening to him talk, his voice slightly cracking at times, it gives a great deal of perspective. Yes, results have been bad; yes, form has been patchy, but losses on a football pitch can be corrected.
And Robertson is sure they will. He has seen enough from Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, from Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike, to feel that they can propel Liverpool forward again. He would have loved to have been part of it, but he was never offered another contract and does not want to be a substitute.
“We bought players that we all got excited about and they will all have an unbelievable career here,” Robertson says. “But they are also young. The one thing I get annoyed about in football is that footballers do not control their price tag.
“We don’t control it, the market controls it. If a team is willing to pay it or they want to sell you and they put a price tag on you – that has nothing to do with the players and these players will be successful for Liverpool. But they probably need a little bit of time.
“We searched for consistency, for answers and we’ve not found it. And we’ve been too easy to play against. There is no hiding away from that, but for the future of Liverpool I believe they have more than enough in that changing room to go and achieve more things again. That is what I want.”
A crucial conversation with Klopp
The point is made firmly. Robertson arrived at Liverpool, from Hull City, as an £8.5m addition with everything to prove, but he will leave as a legend: a dual Premier League winner with a Champions League for good measure. This was only possible because he knocked on a door.
He mentions that Jürgen Klopp initially put him “in a cupboard for four months” and things only changed for him when he summoned the courage to ask his manager the question keeping him up at night: what do I have to do to be in your team?
“Oh, I was -----ing myself!” he says, his laughter filling the room. “Honestly, it was getting to a point where I had to say something. I’ve never had that confidence. I’ve always felt uncertainty. But wherever I have been, I have always just wanted to play.
“I just went into him, it wasn’t confrontational – and I think that’s why the conversation was so good. He thought [what I had to do] was obvious. We’d had a conversation back in the March or April and I had maybe forgotten what he had told me. So it was nice to get that refresh in the October!
“I just went in the next day and I thought: “Everything he has said to me, I am going to do. If I fail, I fail.” But after that, everything clicked. I took the attitude of: “I’m at Liverpool Football Club and I’m going to do everything to make this work.” After that day, me and him never really looked back.”
The irony is that his departure, along with that of “our favourite Egyptian” Mohamed Salah, is making those who roared for him look back with nostalgia. When he reflects on it all, Robertson says he will do so with a massive smile. He will not be the only one.