WIDE BOY SAVED HIS BEST FOR SCOTLAND
ToMoRRow Paddy’s Punts
Celtic and West Ham icon Frank McAvennie you just don’t get away with being lazy in football these days.”
Lazy? No. Different? Definitely. And he makes no apology for that.
In fact, when Faddy joined Alex McLeish’s Scotland backroom staff, he admitted he was looking for someone with his attitude to emerge.
“We love a maverick, someone who’s a bit different,” he said. “So it’s up to the guys in this squad now to step up to the plate.”
Sadly, Scottish football hasn’t produced another player like McFadden but we live in hope.
Meanwhile, we’ll always have Paris.
“I would have been happy with one cap but I got 48 and scored 15 goals,” he says. “People only remember one of them but I remember the rest.” McFadden did it the hard way but the street-smarts he learned stood him in good stead. Not for him an inferiority complex or fear of failure. Which is why even a legend like Goram wasn’t spared when Faddy was trying to find the net. The Ibrox icon was seeing out his career with Motherwell as McFadden was breaking through. “John Boyle had just come in and was spending fortunes on John Spencer and Andy Goram – guys like that,” Faddy said. “I didn’t care. I was young and that gallus. I used to try and chip Goram in training. Because I was brought up a Celtic fan I would have a bit of banter and I just didn’t care. “I just thought I’m good enough here. He used to call me a wee cheeky b ****** and all that. But I used to respect them.” In turn, McFadden earned the respect of a generation who thought the days of watching players of his ilk were long gone.
JUST three weeks to go until the Scottish Premiership returns – no, this column isn’t going to be easy to write in the interim.
Thankfully, there’s action south of the border to distract us in the meantime, as well as transfer speculation silly season.
Which is what I’ll stick to today, because it’s the most fun.
From the sounds of it, Celtic might be lining up on August 2nd with half a squad.
Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer are amongst those linked with big-money moves away, and Fraser Forster is unlikely to return on loan.
The Hoops are favourites to sign Ryan
Fraser and Joe Hart, mind, and remain oddson with our traders to seal ten in a row.
I’m already sick of that phrase, so might start using ‘Le Decima’, as made popular by Real Madrid a few years back, instead.
Rangers fans, the good news for you, I think, is that it’s all gone a bit quiet on Alfredo Morelos’s next club betting market, so there’s that.
noRwich noT To lose To wesT haM wigan To BeaT BaRnsley
ReaDing To win aT chaRlTon liVeRPool, ciTy, chelsea, anD UniTeD all To win
The big four of the league – sorry Brendan! – all in decent enough nick, all odds-on to win. Plus, if one of them lets you down here, our acca insurance kicks in.