Robertson reveals Liverpool squad flew to Jota's funeral after title celebrations

Andy Robertson has described the devastating emotional sequence that shaped Liverpool’s troubled 2025/26 campaign, revealing that the first time the squad gathered after their Premier League title celebrations was to attend Diogo Jota’s funeral.

Speaking with Ian Wright and Gordon Strachan for The Overlap’s My Best Coach series, Robertson — who made his final Liverpool appearance in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Brentford before departing the club alongside Mohamed Salah — was direct about the scale of what the squad endured. “After the highs of the end of last season, the first time [I saw] the lads after the trophy days, we were on a plane to one of our mates’ funerals,” he said.

Robertson, who joined Liverpool in 2017 and spent five years alongside Jota lifting trophies in England, was careful to stress that he did not want Jota’s passing used as an excuse for the club’s dramatic fall to fifth place on 60 points this season. But he was equally clear about the human cost. “We’re only human beings at the end of the day. I think for the world of football it was tough enough, but for us, it’s one of our best mates.”

The 32-year-old also pointed to the knock-on effect during pre-season, explaining that manager Arne Slot and the club’s sports science staff were forced to manage the squad’s workload carefully in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. “In terms of grief, the manager, the sports scientists, they couldn’t push us too hard, too early because of what we were going through,” Robertson said.

Despite Liverpool winning their opening five Premier League fixtures and briefly sitting top of the table, Robertson acknowledged the squad were under no illusions about the quality of those early performances. “It was probably a bit of a false position. We knew our performances had to lift.”

Robertson started 29 Premier League games the previous season as Liverpool claimed the 2024/25 title. His departure, alongside Salah’s, marks the end of a significant era at Anfield.