I appreciate every second I’m on the pitch... one day I’ll wake up and this will be all over
SAYS STEVEN NAISMITH
WHAT do Steven Naismith, Gordon Strachan, Kevin Gallacher, John Hendrie, Duncan Ferguson and Gary McAllister all have in common? They are the six Scots to have scored a hat-trick in the English Premier League.
It is only now that Naismith can appreciate these little snippets of trivia. Not through any sense of self-indulgence; his charity work with organisations like Help the Homeless, Dyslexia Scotland and Help for Heroes identifies him as one of the most humble players you could wish to meet.
But purely through the realisation that, one day, it will all come to an end. A sharpened sense of appreciation seems to have been the main product of his ill-fated stint at Norwich City.
It is perhaps easy to forget that, in January 2016, Norwich forked out £8.5million to take Naismith from Everton, a club for whom he had bagged a treble against Chelsea just a few months previously.
This was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, the reigning champions whose miserly defence would rarely offer so much as a bead of their own sweat to opponents.
If Gallacher has the bragging rights on being the only Scot to have two separate hat-tricks in the top flight down south, Naismith can claim to have done it against the toughest opposition.
Quite why he was outcasted at Carrow Road remains a curious business. A proven operator in the Premier League, he would surely have been capable of doing a job for a team who now find themselves operating in the Championship.
But their loss has very much been Hearts’ gain.
He could have been forgiven if he had opted to ruffle a few feathers at the Canaries given the manner of his departure.
Naismith is routinely described as a ‘flop’ by the local media in East Anglia. A quick Google search shows an article that was written about him earlier this week after he had won the SPFL Premiership Player of the Month award for September, describing him in less-than-favourable terms.
But, enjoying a new lease of life with both club and country, the striker is determined to savour every last second of his time at Hearts.
And, with a nod to some forward planning, he admits that he is almost certain to go into coaching and management when it all ends. For now, though, his focus is on making sure that Craig Levein’s Jambos continue to defy the odds at the top of the league for as long as they possibly can.
‘When you get to this stage of your career, you learn to enjoy things that little bit more and soak it up,’ said the 32-year-old, with a nod to what is becoming an Indian Summer in full bloom.
‘As I’ve grown older, I’ve realised that football is a profession where one day you wake up and you just won’t be able to play anymore.
‘That has driven me over recent times and I have thought to myself more and more: “I’m going to appreciate every single moment”.
‘When you are playing well and you are enjoying it, it takes your mind off of a lot of other things that might be going on in your life.
‘Different things fuel the fire inside you at various stages of your career. For instance, I had a really serious knee injury a few years ago and that really motivated me to come back stronger than ever.
‘As you go on, your motivation changes and, most recently, I have realised that one day it will come to an end. ‘That’s been firing me up. ‘It will be tough when that day finally comes because football is all I’ve ever known. I would imagine that I would stay in the game in some sort of coaching or management capacity.
‘I’ve been fortunate to work with some brilliant managers: Craig Levein, Walter Smith, Alex McLeish, Gordon Strachan, Roberto Martinez, David Moyes. You pick up advice from all of them.
‘Roberto, in particular, taught me a lot in terms of how to manage my body and prepare myself for a game. That’s something that has really helped me as I’ve gotten older.
‘When I sit and watch a game of football, the two things that intrigue me most are tactics and man-management. I find it fascinating.’
It has been under the guidance of Levein at Tynecastle that Naismith has re-ignited his career. With five goals and three assists for a team who sit top of the league, the veteran frontman has vowed that the Gorgie men won’t go quietly from their position at the summit.
Ahead of today’s visit of Aberdeen, he also heaped praise on Levein, who has restored the club from the depths to which it had sunk under Ian Cathro.
‘He is as good a manager as you’ll get in Scottish football,’ said Naismith of his boss.
‘He deserves huge credit for turning the club around.
‘He is very chilled, never too high and never too low.
‘We have benefited from that because there has been a lot of hype around how good our start to the season has been.
‘He makes sure we are grounded. But we are in the mix and, even if some people expect us to fade away, I think we’ll have something to say about that.’