John Tait Robertson

John Tait Robertson (25 February 1877 – 24 January 1935) was a Scottish football player and manager who played mainly as a left half. He won 16 caps for his country, scoring three goals.

Having started his career at Morton, Robertson moved to Everton of the English Football League in 1895, and then Southampton in 1898, with whom he won the Southern Football League in his only season. He then returned to his homeland with Rangers, where he won three consecutive league titles in his first three seasons. Robertson was the first player signed to Chelsea in 1905, and served as their player-manager in their first-ever season, in addition to scoring their first competitive goal. He finished his career in the same role at Glossop North End.

Career

Early career
Robertson began his career at Morton, and moved to Everton in 1895. He spent his first two seasons at Everton in the combination team, and made his first team debut in September 1897, against Wolves. Robertson then spent a single season at Southampton in 1898–99, winning the Southern League.

Rangers 
Following his success in Southampton, he returned to Scotland and won three consecutive Scottish Football League championships at Rangers in his first three seasons, plus a Scottish Cup in the fourth; his last of 178 appearances for the club in all competitions was a play-off for the 1904–05 Scottish Division One title, when he scored but Rangers still lost to Celtic.

Chelsea 
In April 1905, Robertson was the first player to be signed by the newly formed Chelsea Football Club for the role of manager, but continued to play as well (he was 28 years old at the time). It was Robertson who scored Chelsea's first competitive goal, in a 1–0 win at Blackpool on 9 September 1905. In his first season, he led the club to a third-place finish in the Second Division, one place off promotion. In Robertson's second season at the club, he signed future club legend George Hilsdon on a free transfer, who scored five goals in the opening match of the season, defeating Glossop North End in a 9–2 win. 

Robertson then surprisingly resigned from the club (third in the table at the time) on 27 November 1906. Chelsea were promoted to the top flight at the end of that season under caretaker secretary-manager William Lewis. Soon afterwards Robertson became player-manager of Glossop, where he remained until summer 1909, when he became reserve-team manager at Manchester United.

MTK Budapest 
With the sponsorship of Alfréd Brüll and a London fabric company, Robertson arrived in Hungary to coach MTK Budapest in 1911, where he remained for two years before returning to Britain in 1913. During his two years stint, he won the Hungarian Cup in the 1911–12 season, as well as finishing runners-up twice in the league, both times behind Ferencvárosi TC. 

Robertson was considered to be one of the coaches responsible for the development of football in Hungary between the 1910s and 20s, by introducing physical preparations and technical innervations to the Hungarian game.

International career 
Robertson made his debut for Scotland on 2 April 1898 while at Everton, in a 3–1 home defeat to England in the Home Nations Championship. His second cap came on 8 April of the following year, while at Southampton. All of his 14 remaining caps came during his spell at Rangers.

He captained the Scots in his fourth match, as they beat England 4–1 at home on 7 April 1900. His first goal came in his sixth match, on 2 March 1901, in a 1–1 draw with Wales, again as captain. Robertson was Scotland's captain in five matches, and scored two more goals, both against Wales. The last was in his last international on 6 March 1905, in a 3–1 away defeat in Wrexham.

Death
He died at the Royal Cancer Hospital, Milton in January 1935.

Honours

Player 
Southampton
 Southern League championship:  1898–99

Rangers
 Scottish First Division:  1899–1900, 1900–01, 1901–02
 Scottish Cup: 1903
Runner-up: 1904, 1905

Manager 
MTK Budapest

 Magyar Kupa: 1911–12

See also
List of Scotland national football team captains

References

External links 

Everton career summary
Chelsea career summary
Rangers career summary 

1877 births
Footballers from Dumbarton
1935 deaths
Scottish men's footballers
Scotland men's international footballers
Southern Football League players
Scottish Football League players
English Football League players
Southampton F.C. players
Greenock Morton F.C. players
Everton F.C. players
Rangers F.C. players
Chelsea F.C. players
Glossop North End A.F.C. players
Scottish football managers
Scottish expatriate football managers
Chelsea F.C. managers
Glossop North End A.F.C. managers
MTK Budapest FC managers
Manchester United F.C. non-playing staff
Scottish Football League representative players
Men's association football wing halves
Men's association football player-managers
English Football League managers