After 10 games I knew where Declan was heading
Hartley says old Well pal deserves Euros glory
Puzzled Peter Hartley played 10 games with Declan Gallagher and couldn’t wait any longer to ask the question that was nagging away at him.
The Motherwell captain asked: “Mate, how are you not getting into the Scotland team?”
Hartley admits when Gallagher signed from Livingston two years ago it didn’t occur to him at first that the defender was a Scotland star in the making.
Not earning his own place back in Stephen Robinson’s team early on in the 2019/20 campaign didn’t help Hartley form a view.
But as soon as the pair hooked up as a partnership at the heart of the Fir Park defence, the penny dropped.
Hartley recognised a late-maturing class act whom he cou ld not bel ieve was uncapped for Scotland.
I t wa sn’ t long before national manager Steve Clarke agreed that Gallagher was ready and right for his squad.
Clarke handed him a senior debut at the age of 28 away to Cyprus in November 2019 and Gal lagher hasn’t looked back since. Hartley, now with Indian Super League side Jamshedpur, said: “I will be honest, I didn’t see him going on to play for Scotland back when he first arrived.
“But 10 games in, playing with him, my opinion went from ‘I don’t see it’ to ‘How is he not?’
“And I asked him why. When you are playing next to someone, you see the l ittle things that not everyone can pick up on when they’re watching the game.
“And, in a partnership, you rely on each other for certain things. I had the pleasure of playing alongside him that season.
“Though it took time for me to get back into the team, I developed a really good relationship with him.”
With Hartley and the ex- Clyde and Dundee man going on to be mainstays in Robinson’s defence, Motherwell finished third in a Premiership year that was curtailed in March by the coronavirus shutdown of sport.
Gallagher had won the most aerial battles in the top flight for a defender the year before for Livi – just one of the reasons Well made their move.
But, more than anything else, Hartley was seduced by the style his team-mate showed with the ball at his feet. He said: “Everything Dec has got he deserves – and more – because of how hard he works.
“You could see that he had no fear at all and that is half the battle. He always had great self-belief.
“But you would think he was a No. 10 playmaker in training because he just never gives the ball away.
“Gliding past people with the ball and keeping it on the safe side, he has that great natural ability.”
Motherwell endured a tough 2020/21 season, in which Robinson resigned as manager in mid-season, but 30-year-old Gallagher’s star has remained on the rise. He’s amassed seven Scotland caps and will appear at Euro 2020 as an Aberdeen player af ter signing a two-year Pittodrie contract earl ier this month.
Har t le y added : “When I left the club as captain, I would not have wanted any other person to lead the team last season.
“It helps that he has just got that knack of making everybody smile. His banter is very sharp.
“Personal ly, he would do anything for you. He is a great lad as well as a fantastic player.
“He leads in a different way to myself. There is no right or wrong way, real ly. I’m sure he did a cracking job.”
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