‘HAN-DO’ ATTITUDE
THE phrase ‘no-nonsense centre-half’ might have been coined with Grant Hanley in mind.
If it wasn’t, it should have been. Because rarely in the game will you come across a player who is as focused on the job in hand.
Nothing else, other than playing and winning, matters. He doesn’t do fuss or fluff.
He knows he’s not the world’s best defender. And no one will be hurting more in Norwich City’s dressing room at their Premier League relegation than him.
But now that it’s done, it’s on to the next one – Scotland and qualifying for the World Cup.
The pressure and tension against Ukraine on Wednesday at Hampden will be immense, with a final against Wales at stake.
But Hanley, 30, is too old and wise to get involved in any of that. A few years ago, he was struggling to make the squad.
Now, the Tartan Army wouldn’t have a Scotland starting line-up without his name on it.
If he plays in every game between now and the 2022 World Cup, he would get his landmark 50th cap in Qatar. He said: “I would just like to rack up as many caps as I can.
“Physically, I feel in a good place after a couple of years where I struggled with injury.
“People can do that maths and that might happen. But my mindset is just the Ukraine game.
“As for Wales, if you know me you’ll know I’m not a big believer in that kind of stuff.
“I like to keep things simple. My focus is purely on Ukraine.”
Seeing off a Ukrainian side united in grief and adversity won’t be easy for Scotland, given the conflict afflicting the country.
But in typical Hanley fashion, he says the biggest respect Scotland can pay their opponents is to go and beat them.
He said: “The last game was postponed and we had a friendly where there was a lot of money raised for the people in Ukraine after what happened.
“That was the right thing to do at the time. But now the focus for us has to be on football.”