WANTED MAN
Levein warns Celtic they face being priced out of a move for Gordon by English suitors
CRAIG LEVEIN suspects Craig Gordon won’t be in opposition to Scotland rival Allan McGregor in Old Firm action next season — because he’ll be offered a handful of lucrative Barclays Premier League deals this summer.
Gordon, signed by Sunderland for a record-breaking £9million five years ago, is available for free following his release at the Stadium Of Light and long-term admirers Celtic are ready to move if Fraser Forster doesn’t return to Parkhead on a permanent deal.
However, Levein expects the former Hearts No 1 to be one of the hottest properties in the close-season market and able to take his pick of several contracts that the SPL champions would toil to trump.
‘I will be amazed if he doesn’t end up staying in the Premiership,’ said the Scotland manager. ‘There will be no shortage of interest. He’s 29 now, so you are getting a Premier League goalkeeper with international experience at the best stage you could possibly get a goalkeeper at.
‘I don’t know the ins and outs of Craig’s contract, where he wants to go or what he’s looking for, so I have to be careful I don’t speak out of turn.
‘But there should be four or five English clubs after him. I don’t know where Celtic are in regards to salary but, once you’re down in the Premier League and earning serious money...
‘Celtic are just as big as the majority of clubs down there but the income is nowhere near what those in England get. So they would be struggling to compete financially with mid-table or even bottom end of the Premiership.’
Gordon has stated his intention to step up his bid to dislodge McGregor as Scotland No 1. A succession of injuries, including two arm breaks and a knee tendon problem, have seen him helpless to stop the Rangers hero from pinching his place in the national side.
McGregor (right) was outstanding for Scotland in the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign and, barring injury or an improbable loss of form, will retain the gloves for the World Cup openers this autumn.
However, Levein admitted there remains precious little between the two stars on talent alone. He said: ‘There isn’t a cigarette paper between Allan and Craig. Allan has done really well, so Craig just has to be patient. Craig has huge aspirations to be back as Scotland’s No1 goalkeeper.
‘The reason Allan is first choice is because he’s been in and done the job and, if he keeps performing at that level, then Craig just has to keep on performing to the best of his ability. That’s football — and it’s how I like to do it.
‘I am biased because I had Craig at Hearts but I just think he’s top class. He’s probably the best goalkeeper in the club scene I’d worked with.
‘But he’s been unfortunate lately with long-term injuries since starting my first game against Czech Republic. I still have great faith in him and he has been excellent in training this past week.’
DON COWIE possessed two key credentials for making the breakthrough into the Scotland squad in October 2009. He lived conveniently near Heathrow Airport and was a fit for one of several SFA suits going spare.
It sounds like a joke and the truth was that Cowie remembers his proud elevation to earning a senior cap being regarded by many people as laughable.
A Watford player at the time, he packed a bag at short notice to join George Burley’s squad for the London-Japan leg of their travels and fill one gap left by a recordbreaking number of call-offs from established names and regular back-ups.
There were a staggering and embarrassing 19 no-shows for the friendly in the Far East that came four weeks after failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Ross Wallace and Stephen Hughes were among a sextet gifted Scotland caps by Burley that Saturday evening. Derek Riordan and Lee Miller also featured.
His own hurriedly-arranged recruitment ensured Cowie’s debut in the 2-0 loss in Yokohama was hardly taken seriously. By the time he made his second appearance a month later in Wales, there was little for Scotland followers to consider in light-hearted fashion.
The manager was bulleted in the aftermath of that Cardiff capitulation and Cowie pondered if he’d be damned by his direct link to the fumbling fingerprints left during the death throes of Burley’s reign.
However, unlike other dips deep into the reserves — or invites to any Scottish player with a passport to hand during those desperate days — Cowie is still standing as a member of the squad.
And after nine caps, including all four Euro 2012 qualifiers in the season just past and a cameo against Brazil, he knows that Craig Levein’s inclusion of his name in each Scotland pool is no dubious compliment.
‘Maybe at that time I thought, with a new manager and new thoughts coming in, I might not get into the plans,’ Cowie admitted.
‘I was only ever in those two squads under George Burley and I’ll forever be grateful for him introducing me into the set-up.
‘But, by the time I was called up for Japan, I think the list of those who’d withdrawn was into double figures and it was sort of made into a bit of a laughing stock.
‘It didn’t take anything away from it for me. It was my first call-up to the national side, so I was as proud as I’d have been if I was named in a normal squad at the time.
‘Luckily for me, I got 45 minutes and absolutely loved it. I’ll always remember it. Fortunately, I got in the next squad again for Wales. But we lost and the manager lost his job.
‘I kept plugging away at club level and hoped that I’d catch Craig Levein’s eye. Thankfully, I’ve done that OK. It feels different now to see my name in an original Scotland squad. I take great pride from it.
‘Any time I’m involved, I always regard it as being my last chance. That’s my motto, the way I look at it. So I always do my best in the training sessions we do or if I get on the pitch.’
Cowie has been doing just that in
By the time I was called up for Japan, the list of those who had withdrawn was into double figures and it became a bit of a laughing stock
Florida this past week. In contrast to the squads he hooked up with at the outset of his Scotland career, now there are high-class absentees omitted at the manager’s discretion.
There is a climate of competition to be on the plane for Scotland duty now, as opposed to widespread indifference.
‘I was pretty open to what George Burley was trying to do,’ said Cowie. ‘I’d never been part of a squad before, so I can’t really say what was going on under his management but, for whatever reason, things just didn’t work under him.
‘But what I will say is that, working under Craig, you can see that there haven’t been any call-offs. That’s a sign. The season is over and everyone is champing at the bit to be involved. It’s great.
‘I’ve played 58 games this season — my most ever — but I never considered not turning up. You want to be a part of things and that can only be a good thing going into the next campaign.’
The 29-year-old former Ross County captain’s progression gathered pace after he moved in January 2009 from Inverness to Championship outfit Watford. Twoand-a-half years at Vicarage Road ended last summer when he followed Malky Mackay to Cardiff City.
‘Malky has played a big part in all of this,’ Cowie explained. ‘When I went to Watford, he was the firstteam coach under Brendan Rodgers and there was that natural relationship. I was the boy from Scotland coming down and he sort of looked out for me. When he became manager, I was delighted because I had that relationship already with him.
‘I really thrived and enjoyed playing under Malky so, as soon as I knew he was desperate for me to follow him to Cardiff, I was more than happy to take up the offer.’
Cowie played every minute and scored a shoot-out penalty as Cardiff agonisingly missed out on Carling Cup Final glory against Liverpool. And the nearly theme continued as they lost in the play-offs to eventual Wembley heroes West Ham at the semi-final stage.
A promotion season to the top flight with Mackay and a role in Scotland’s World Cup bid are firmly in his sights after the summer break.
‘Every time a Scotland squad is about to be announced, I never assume that I am going to be in it. I always wonder,’ he continued. ‘The fact that I’ve managed to get in the squad on a regular basis suggests that I’ve improved. And I still think that I can get better.
‘I’m aware there are a lot of players trying to get in this squad and I’ve just got to try to keep on improving and do as well as I can.
‘There are aspects that I need to improve on and that’s what I’ll be trying to do every working day at Cardiff. And it would be great to get promoted after three years of the club losing in the play-offs.’