When it comes to record sales at Hull City, Andy Robertson just about sits inside the top 10. Above him on that list sit the likes of Shane Long, Jake Livermore, Robert Snodgrass, Harry Maguire and Jarrod Bowen, while James Chester and Robbie Brady are perched alongside the Scottish left-back.
A man currently filling a key role in a star-studded Liverpool squad does not figure any higher on that chart as he moved to Anfield for just £8 million in the summer of 2017. At that stage, he had just been relegated out of the Premier League for a second time and had been playing third-tier football in Scotland at Queen’s Park just four years earlier.
Fast forward to the present and Robertson is now a Premier League title winner on Merseyside and a man looking to chase down a second continental crown, with Champions League best odds pricing Liverpool at 2.06 to see off Real Madrid in the 2022 final on May 28.
The buccaneering full-back also has League Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup winners’ medals to his name, with over 220 largely memorable performances having been taken in since swapping life in East Yorkshire for that in the North West.
Few could have predicted, even Jurgen Klopp if he was pushed hard enough, that Robertson would make quite such an impact after moving from Hull a little under five years ago. He has, however, shown himself to be a performer that likes nothing more than upsetting the odds.
Meteoric rise
That meteoric rise to prominence has taken him to the very top of the game, with many of those that played before, during and after his stint at Hull failing to scale similar heights despite often boasting heftier price tags.
Alongside his club efforts at Anfield, there is also every chance that Robertson will be gracing the World Cup finals in Qatar later this year – as captain of Scotland, no less. From once being just another cog in a much bigger wheel, the Glasgow native has become a driving force for club and country.
Those on the banks of the Humber can, and should, take great pride in playing a small part in putting a man that cost them less than £3 million on a path that has seen his value soar to the point that he is now probably worth at least 10 times that figure.
He may not have demanded the fee of a Maguire or a Bowen when heading to pastures new, but he has certainly eclipsed their efforts to position himself at the very top of a football chain in England that continues to deliver him prestigious prizes on a regular basis and widespread praise from across the globe.
Hull City may have seen plenty of pupils pass through their corridors before heading on to bigger and occasionally better things, but Robertson can claim to sit at the very top of that class after establishing himself as the most distinguished of Tigers alumni.