FADDY: WE CAN FINALLY QUALIFY
PRODIGAL son James McFadden has backed Alex McLeish and his new-look Scotland squad to do what he never could – by blasting their way out of the international wilderness to a place at Euro 2020.
McFadden was unveiled as part of McLeish’s backroom team on Monday as the new boss named a 27-man squad for friendly fixtures with Costa Rica and Hungary later this month. And the returning talisman, who became the darling of the Tartan Army by netting 15 goals in 48 appearances for his country, is convinced he has returned in time to help bring an end to an exile from major finals which stretches back 20 years. McFadden – who suffered agonisingly near misses in the quest to qualify for two European finals in 2004 and 2008 – is adamant McLeish and his players are now ready to stop the rot.
He said: “That’s what we believe. We were unbeaten for the whole of last year and just fell short again.
“But the signs were there and I don’t think we are far away.
“We carry that on and there are a few younger players involved now. With the Nations League coming up, there are different routes to qualify.
“I can’t stress how proud I am to be here. Never in my wildest dreams growing up did I think I would play for Scotland.
“No matter how much belief I had as a player, I didn’t dream too far ahead. Now I believe we can go on and achieve something special here. We are here to give the fans a bit of hope.
“There is a chance to get to a tournament that has games at Hampden, which is something that has never happened before. We hope we can go and achieve.”
And McFadden insists he will draw on his own bitter personal experiences of agony in the qualifiers in order to help Scotland over the line.
The former Everton and Birmingham attacker – who netted a glory goal to dump France in their own back yard – said: “Every time we went into a new campaign I believed we were going to win the group – I honesty did.
“That has to be the case again, we have to believe we can go on and achieve something special.
“I want to help these players. I look back to 2008 when we were so close to qualifying but we lost 2-0 in Georgia. That was the game that killed us.
“The big game is the one you have to win, the must-win game. If you go to Paris, it’s a freebie. The same if you play France here. If you go to Georgia, you have to win that game to qualify.
“Those are the wee things you maybe don’t realise at the time. But it is still there with me now.
“The other side is that when you finish a campaign and you are 22, you think, ‘It’s OK, we have another one.’ But you have to take the chance when you get it. It doesn’t matter what age you are.
“For boys coming in at 20, 21, 22, it might be their last chance to qualify. You never know. But we also can’t get bogged down by the fact that we haven’t qualified for so long. We have to be positive.”