There were times playing & I would walk away
ISRAEL v SCOTLAND EUAN McLEAN
JUST like Leigh Griffiths, James McFadden’s place in history is secured by a moment of magic conjured in the dark blue of Scotland.
But unlike Faddy he hopes Griffiths can be remembered for something more than just an iconic goal that ultimately added up to nothing.
Even now McFadden grits his teeth at the mention of his defining strike – that legendary thunderbolt from the blue that shocked France in Paris in 2007.
Truth is he’s sick of hearing about it, far less talk about it because to McFadden it’s only a reminder of another typical moment of good, old-fashioned glorious failure for Scottish football.
Just like Griffiths’s stunning – but ultimately fruitless – free-kick strikes that almost earned Scotland a sensational win over England at Hampden that would have breathed life into our flagging bid for World Cup qualification.
Almost. Nearly. Words that go hand in hand with Scotland and now McFadden looks back with frustration that he can’t step back on the pitch to change the language.
But Griffiths can. At 28 he still has the time to change Scotland’s stars and create more magic moments that would put his double against the Auld Enemy in the shade.
He just needs to choose to stick around to do them, which is why McFadden, now Alex McLeish’s sport@dailyrecord.co.uk assistant manager for the national team, hopes Griff’s self-imposed absence from this week’s squad proves only to be a one-off.
As much as the party line being strictly adhered to yesterday at Scotland’s team hotel in Edinburgh was one of Griffiths having not spat out the dummy, there was one telling slip-up in McFadden’s chat with the assembled media...
“There’s times when I didn’t play and I wasn’t happy and I’d sulk as well.”
Maybe Griffiths’s true fitness concern surrounds a swollen petted lip or sore front teeth from the kick he felt McLeish had administered by declaring Steven Naismith his first-choice striker for this week’s trip to Israel.
Or maybe the Celtic star is so determined to knuckle down on his own to help prove his managers of both club and country that he should be their first pick ahead of Odsonne Edouard and Naismith.
We’ll find out which reality it is in time.
But for now McFadden can only watch the situation unfold and hope Griffiths isn’t making the biggest mistake of his life.
The moment he’ll look back on with regret one day when his boots are hanging up and all he can do is wonder what might have been. McFadden said: “Scotland should still be the pinnacle but it’s a personal thing. I’m never going to tell people what to do.
“But having played a lot when I was younger and then had a bad injury and never got back in, I finished playing for Scotland when I was 27 and I still miss it.
“There are times when I didn’t play and I wasn’t happy and I’d sulk as well. I didn’t like not playing but I’d never turn my back on it.
“I’ve spoken to some players who at times have felt like they were going to stop playing and concentrate on their club football but I would say that I think they would regret it.
“Later in life when their career is finished they would look back and say, ‘I probably could have played on.’
“You’ve just got to savour every minute you get with the national side because you don’t know how long it’s going to last.
“If you are a young enough guy and you’re still deemed good enough to play for your country, you might look back and wish you’d kept going.
“I don’t think I would ever have got to the stage where I would have said I’m going to concentrate on club