Former flair player Juanjo is sure his former Inverness boss John Robertson will continue to do the business for the club after moving into a new role.
Robertson was last week confirmed as the Championship club’s first sporting director, meaning he is not returning to his role as the manager.
The Caley Jags boss was given time away from it all in February on compassionate leave and his career takes a new direction with a range of projects on his to-do list.
Robbo ‘connects with people very easily’
He was the man who first won promotion for ICT back in 2004 and Barcelona-born Juanjo was a key capture from Hearts at the time.
Juanjo is full of admiration for the way Robertson managed players and is sure he’ll thrive in this different role.
He said: “John is a class guy. He works closely with players and is really easy going.
“He’s a great manager and he gave me the freedom to play my game and I really enjoyed that. I’ve had a great relationship with him and this is a good move for him.
“He has the experience as a player where he was one of the best and he’s gone on to be an excellent coach, so he will do well.
“This seems like a good job for him. He has so much experience in football, from his time at Hearts and Inverness.
“He connects with people very easily and is really well known throughout Scotland and further afield.”
Injury nightmare halted Juanjo’s rise in Scotland
Looking back at this time playing under Robbo in Scotland’s top-flight, Juanjo is proud of how that group made the critics eat their words.
He explained: “It was difficult playing and travelling to Aberdeen to play home matches (due to stadium construction at Inverness), but it was still special times at Caley Thistle.”
A ruptured Achilles tendon robbed him of more days of dazzling on the pitch and perhaps a move upward.
“After a few games, everyone was tipping us to go back down, but then suddenly we started to get results and were climbing the table. That was a big surprise for the people betting on us to go straight down.
“It was just really frustrating to get injured. I was top scorer with Graham Bayne on eight goals at that time and we were playing really decent football, a small team like Inverness doing so well in some big stadiums.
“I had played every game and there was interest from elsewhere, enquiring about my services.
“Then I had my injury and it was hard to come back. But that’s football and life and you just have to fight back.
“It was great to play as a second striker, which I hadn’t done before. John Robertson gave me the chance to play in that new role.
“I had played more as a winger or right midfielder, but he had me playing just behind the main striker and it worked very well, with strikers like Graham Bayne to work with. It was really good.”