The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Dump Dark Blue dictators
It seems to me there are some Scotland players who want to be able to pick and choose when they want to play for the national team – and it has got to stop.
Matt Ritchie is the latest player to make himself unavailable and, while his absence from the squad doesn’t bother me one bit, the idea of any player wanting to dictate when he pulls on the Dark Blue shirt does.
As a former player who would have given everything to pull on a Scotland jersey, and was fortunate enough to play for my country, I just can’t comprehend why a player would not want to play.
There are guys who have pulled out or did not make the squad last week due to injury and, while I wonder why we have so many withdrawals, sometimes I am willing to trust these niggles are all genuine. That’s part and parcel of the game, but Alex McLeish must feel so disheartened by it all at the moment.
In a week where he faces two must-win games in the Nations League how frustrating must it be for Alex and his coaches James McFadden and Peter Grant, three players who all represented their country, to see their preparations for the game disrupted by the number of drop-outs and changes.
As a fan, I’ve come to expect it and I’m sure the vast majority of the Tartan Army do, too, but if we don’t win the next two games will all these absent players be remembered? I doubt it.
I hope the likes of Gary Mackay-Steven and Mikey Devlin, who were late call-ups last month, take their chance and the same goes for David Bates, Ryan Jack, Scott McTominay and Scott Bain.
The call came late for the Dons duo last month and they’ve stayed in the squad. Here’s hoping the four names called up on Sunday are also give their chance. I look at Alex and I see a guy who, a year into the job, has still not had a chance to put a team he may have in his mind out on the pitch. But he has been in the game long enough to know there will be no room for sentiment if Scotland don’t start winning games and quickly.
If I was in Alex’s position, I’d be looking at my squad and saying to myself ‘you know what, it’s time to start focusing on guys who want to be here and playing for Scotland.’
It’s not as if there’s too many players in the side who have been playing so well that they’ve cemented their place in the starting 11 is it? Knowing Alex, he won’t moan about who’s not there. But privately he must be hurting. He has been fighting with one hand tied behind his back since day one.
Maybe it’s time for the manager to take a stand and start rewarding the committed members of the squad.