A Scottish international who played most of his career at Nottingham Forest, Robertson made 385 appearances for Forest between 1970 and 1983. He then joined Derby (72 appearances) before returning to Forest in

Joined Martin O'Neill at Grantham and Wycombe, followed him to Carrow Road where he was Chief Scout, then onto Filbert Street where he was O'Neill's Assistant Manager at Premiership side Leicester. A similar role was peformed at Scottish giants Celtic for many years but he left the club in May 2005 when O'Neill resigned.

Robertson then spent 2006-2010 as Aston Villa's assistant manager, workign under O'Neill.

John suffered a tragedy in October 1996 when his 13-year-old daughter Jessica died. Jessica had been born in 1983 with cerebral palsy, which left her quadriplegic and unable to speak or control her movements. She had a short life expectancy. In 1994, Robertson and his former wife Sally had challenged the hospital where Jessica was born for damages, claiming that they had caused her brain damage by a 12-hour delay to carry out a Caesarean section. However, they lost their High Court case

Robertson released his autobiography 'Supertramp' in September 2012. He supported Rangers as a boy, but describes his time at Celtic as assistant to Martin O'Neill as the best years of his life in football

John suffered a suspected heart attack while playing tennis with former Forest team-mate Liam O’Kane on 23rd August 2013