The year is 2012.
Andy Robertson has graduated from the Queen's Park academy and, at 18, he's lying around in the summer just waiting for the Queen's Park season to start so he can make his debut for the senior team.
Who the fuck is Queen's Park, you ask?
Easy. Glasgow side. Amateur. Actually, they're the only fully-amateur club who today play in the Scottish Professional Football League.
So, when you're playing for Queen's Park, you're operating at a decent standard of amateur football but, essentially, you're still looking for a job. So was Andy Robertson.
The Scottish full back was unheard of in world football terms. It was three or four years since he lost his place in the Celtic youth academy and he was now an adult, still playing amateur football for Queen's Park and talking about having no money. A few months later, one good season later, everything changed. Everything.
- 2012/13 - Queen's Park
- 2013/14 - Dundee United
- 2014-17 - Hull City
- 2017 - Liverpool
From talking about looking for a job on the 18th August 2012, Andy Robertson was picked up by Dundee United on 3rd June 2013. Not even 10 months later.
Five seasons later, he's preparing for a Champions League final against Real Madrid.
https://twitter.com/andrewrobertso5/status/236918390793568256
Robertson's tweet from six years ago is a lesson to people in all walks of life to never give up on your dreams.
Imagine, just imagine fate had intervened a little sooner. Robertson would always have been a good footballer, sure, he probably would've always kept it up but his hopes for a job and for money back then like any teenager hopes for might just have overridden any dreams he was still harbouring at that late age and he might've had to take a step back from the demands of Queen's Park - considering he was playing for them for free.
All it took was a season. A season of talent, of course, but one of grit, heart and just keeping his head down and trusting that the plan was going to fall into place.
Even this season, Andy Robertson's arrival wasn't exactly the one that got everyone talking. He's used to not listening to what the world is telling him by now though and, yet again in just one little season, he has taken the sort of strides that would inspire even the most downtrodden.
27 competitive games later for Liverpool and people are arguing that he should be on the team of the year, he spread the whole right side of Man City on toast, he advanced to the Champions League final and, more importantly, no-one - absolutely bloody nobody - is talking about Liverpool needing a left back anymore.
Six years ago, he was just an 18-year-old looking for a job. Never give up.
