McGregor’s arrival at Ibrox fires me up to prove I’m No 1 for Scots
IN an age when an all-seeing eye seems to cast its gaze across the globe, being out of sight and out of mind is nigh on impossible. allan McGregor was hardly likely to fall off the face of the earth in a football sense when he joined Hull City five years ago.
Without question, though, the goalkeeper’s decision to return to Rangers this summer significantly increases his visibility in the game.
The implications for Craig Gordon are clear. For all players’ selection for their national team ought to be based purely on form and ability, there is no question that playing for the bigger clubs in the land of their birth does their chances no harm whatsoever.
as wrong as that may seem, McGregor keeping a string of clean sheets for Rangers simply has more currency than him doing likewise in the English Championship. It’s just the way it goes.
Gordon needs no one to spell out this scenario for him. When hostilities resume in a few weeks, the return of a familiar face across the city may well have serious implications for his ambitions of retaining the Scotland No 1 jersey.
‘allan signing for Rangers puts him in the public eye a bit more,’ said the 35-year-old Celtic keeper.
‘In the bottom half of the Championship, nothing much really gets reported up here. Whether he had a good or bad game, nobody would really notice.
‘Up here, there will be more scrutiny, either good or bad. People will look at him.
‘We will wait and see, but it definitely will be a talking point as we are both in the same league now.
‘People will be able to compare us, but it won’t change our relationship at all. We will be absolutely fine.
‘The competition is brilliant. That keeps me driven.
‘You use any bit of motivation you can get and that’s what that is. There are a lot of good keepers at Celtic and with Scotland, and that pushes everyone on.’
The old custodian game is a merciless trade. Strikers can miss, miss and miss again, but can always somehow redeem themselves with a late tap-in. Goalkeepers, as Loris Karius and Willy Caballero will doubtless testify, have no such means of redemption. aside from the opposition, the only fringe benefits to be had from such calamities belong to those who are waiting in the wings. Wishing ill on a rival for a jersey, though, is simply not Gordon’s style. ‘The Goalies Union does exist,’ he added. ‘I would never wish a player in that position to do anything wrong or have a bad game. ‘I just want to be the best I can possibly be and prove I am worth the shirt. ‘It never comes into my head that I want the keeper to make a mistake. I just want my team to win the game.
‘It’s not hard to wish another keeper well. Yes, I’d always want to be playing, but I would still help them if I could. If I have knowledge of the opposition or a certain player, then I would pass it on to the keeper.
‘It’s about trying to get the best outcome for club or country. I want to win the game, no matter who is playing.’
Gordon has been through so much in his career by now and seen so many contenders off the premises that such self-assurance just comes naturally.
He is 35 now, however. For a goalkeeper, that is hardly an age where they pack you off to the knacker’s yard. But nor is anyone impervious to the passing of time.
With each passing year, the challenge of maintaining the sky-high standards he has set does not get any easier.
‘That’s a cut-off age for some people,’ he smiled. ‘They think you can pick up your pension if you get in early enough.
‘These things can easily get written about or spoken about.
‘But I’m just focusing on getting my body in the right shape to play at my best.
‘If I do that, then, hopefully, I will keep any of that talk out of the press and off Twitter for as long as possible.’
The passing of time yields few benefits, but a greater sense of perspective is one of them. No more does the Celtic man torture himself with matters beyond his control.
‘I can brush off criticism better now,’ added Gordon. ‘I have played hundreds of games. So no matter what happens, and given where I have come from, I have had a good innings.
‘I can accept that, but I still want to play at the highest level possible. I don’t want people to be talking about my age. I want them to say I’m playing better than I ever have.’
Perhaps his greatest accolade is the fact that his return to the professional game at Celtic in 2014 saw him reprise the kind of form he showed at Hearts and all too briefly at Sunderland.
He might well have been defined