I grew up hoping just to play for my country ...so to be captain is MASSIVE
SAYS CHARLIE MULGREW
THERE have been many moments down the years when Charlie Mulgrew might have questioned the wisdom of the person who first claimed that good things come to those who wait.
A regular attender for the Scotland Under-21 squad, the defender’s international career seemed to head towards the Bermuda Triangle the minute he was eligible for full honours.
Despite turning out for Celtic, Wolves and Aberdeen in his formative years, it took until one week shy of his 26th birthday to win his first full cap in Slovenia. And now, six years on, this.
‘I only found out just before training so it was a real honour for me,’ the Blackburn Rovers man said of skippering his country for the first time against Costa Rica at Hampden tonight.
‘I didn’t have any inkling and I certainly wasn’t expecting it. When the manager told me, I was absolutely delighted.
‘You grow up hoping to get the chance to play for Scotland. So to be captain for a game is massive for myself and my family.’
Mulgrew is no stranger to having to bide his time in order to reap such handsome rewards. For all there is now an air of mystery attached to those international wilderness years, the fact he was at one point farmed out on loan from Wolves to Southend United goes some way to explaining it.
In those humbling times, the prospect of pulling on a Dark Blue jersey once for real, let alone an armband on top of it, would have seemed faintly ludicrous.
‘I never gave up,’ said the 32-times-capped player. ‘I always tried to keep believing in my ability. I always believed I could play for my country.
‘I played all the way through the age groups then didn’t play for the full squad until I was nearly 26.
‘You do doubt yourself at times and worry it won’t come but, thankfully, it did.
‘That’s why I cherish each time I’m called up. I try to treat every training session as if it is my last.
‘I never take being called up for granted. I always check each squad just to make sure I am there. I am always delighted when I am.’
There was a moment prior to Mulgrew making a name for himself second time around at Celtic Park that Scotland’s apparent indifference towards him threatened to draw a line under the matter.
Eligible to play for the USA on account of his maternal grandmother, a marriage of convenience was mooted though never finalised.
‘I got a phone call but I always wanted to play for Scotland,’ he said. ‘Scotland is the country of my birth and I’ve got no feelings towards America whatsoever.’
Recent experiences also endangered the prospect of a day like today dawning. Relegated from the Championship with Blackburn by a painful two-goal margin last season, the player feared for the international implications of plying his trade in the third tier of the English game.
‘Of course I was concerned about Scotland,’ he said. ‘There were chances to maybe move on but I felt I owed Blackburn something.
‘I was part of the squad which went down, so I always wanted to stay and try to get them back to where the club should be.
‘But there are those doubts in your mind that it might not happen again. Every time I get called up, I’m honoured.’
His commitment to the cause is beyond all question. The fact top-of-the-table Rovers’ next assignment is against Bradford on Thursday makes the timing of Tuesday’s friendly against Hungary in Budapest awkward to say the least.
Tony Mowbray, Mulgrew’s club manager, is likely to raise the matter with Alex McLeish over the weekend but, in the player’s view, there is nothing to fret about.
‘My full focus coming away here is Scotland,’ he said. ‘I can deal with that after the game in Budapest. It’s still 36 hours between games, so there’s a long time. In central defence, you don’t maybe do as much running as you would in other positions.’
Mulgrew needs no one to tell him how it works. With no shortage of candidates for the armband in and around McLeish’s first squad, club considerations must be put on the back burner. It goes without saying that he wants to make this evening’s temporary arrangement a permanent one.
‘I will just take it one game at a time,’ he said. ‘The manager just said I would be captain against Costa Rica. That’s as far as it went really.
‘I don’t know if he is looking to build anything around me.
‘He maybe looked at the amount of caps I have and looked at the squad. I have quite a lot compared to many of the other boys.
‘There are a lot of captains in the changing room, a lot of leaders and, hopefully, we can get the right result.’
The current skipper at Ewood Park having occasionally led out Celtic under Neil Lennon, the added responsibility tonight is unlikely to faze him.
‘Growing up a Celtic fan, that was massive for me,’ he said. ‘It was a proud moment.
‘I captain my current club and when I got given that captaincy, I just tried to be myself.
‘There is that thing in the back of your mind where there’s a bit of extra responsibility but I’ll just be trying to do my best for my country as I always do and try and win matches.’ Having turned 32 earlier this month, Mulgrew is all the man he is ever going to be. Accordingly, there will no need for poor imitations in the minutes leading up to kick-off.
‘I’ve played under a few good captains, with Scott Brown the most notable,’ he said.
‘But I just try to be myself because when you start trying to act like someone else, then people see through it quickly.
‘Hopefully I’m captain because that’s what I’ve been doing — being who I am. I hope to lead by example with the way I play.
‘I hope my style is a bit of everything, being vocal and keeping the squad together.
‘But there are a few boys who are quite vocal and put their bit across — and we’ll all be working in the same direction.’