Fleck able to fill the void after Brown bows out
TO the deep midfield provision showcased by Darren Fletcher and Barry Bannan in the face of a Scotland injury crisis, add two entirely unheralded names for consideration.
St Johnstone’s Stefan Scougall can’t comprehend how two of his former team-mates, former Rangers boy wonder John Fleck and Paul Coutts, have not been in the frame for World Cup qualifying call-ups.
The midfield partnership for high-flying English sleeping giant Sheffield United have only a dozen Under-21 caps between them and probably will not anticipate a shout from Gordon Strachan any time soon.
However, Scougall believes Fleck is the most realistic alternative available to Scott Brown if the Celtic and Scotland skipper again calls time on his international career before a new campaign.
‘For me, both Flecky and Paul could be in,’ said Scougall. ‘They complement each other so well. Last season they both played more than 40 league games — the majority of that in our League One promotion season.
‘In that time they proved they were top midfielders. I could see it in training every day.
‘Coutts flies under the radar a bit. Flecky has a bit more drive and dig but they work so well together.
‘I’m surprised they’ve not even been mentioned for the squad. When people are talking about Scott Brown being missing from the Scotland squad, I’d say Flecky ticks more of the boxes than anyone to take his place.
‘I’ve trained with him every day. I know what he’s like as a player and a person. I think he should at least have been in the squad by now to take a look at him.’
Boyhood Rangers supporter Scougall, who left Bramall Lane for Perth in the close season, was an occasional visitor to Ibrox as a teenage Fleck burst into the first team in a blaze of hype early in 2009 under Walter Smith. He has been required to roam around the English lower leagues with Blackpool and Coventry before joining United and blossoming into the rounded midfield talent that his raw skills hinted at.
‘When Flecky came on to the scene 10 years ago, he was maybe more of a No 10, playing off the front,’ added Scougall. ‘He was hailed as the Scottish Wayne Rooney. Everyone was saying he’d be the next big thing.
‘Sometimes it doesn’t work that way, though. He didn’t get the regular games needed, ended up on loan to Blackpool then went to Coventry. And he changed his game.
‘He maybe didn’t have the mobility or awareness back then to play the role he was in. So he developed his game and he’s now a really more of a natural central midfielder.
‘He gets on the ball, can switch play, drive the team forward. And he can do the dirty side in terms of defending as well.
‘When he first came to Sheffield, he missed part of pre-season. He was so unfit it was ridiculous!
‘But once he got up to pace, he could run the entire game. He could do in the 90th minute what he did in the first minute. He was brilliant.
‘Flecky played deeper with Paul, while I normally played one in front. Then Mark Duffy came in when I was injured and kept his place because we were doing well.
‘But I was down there for three-and-a-half years and left with a league winner’s medal, which was a nice way to go out.’