CLUB SUCCESS IS NOT ENOUGH TO KEEP McARTHUR SATISFIED
He’s become an integral part of a star-studded Crystal Palace side and holds his own against the English top flight’s finest, yet James McArthur knows he has been Scotland’s ‘odd man out’ too often and is determined to assume centre stage on the road to R
A 25th cap is a good landmark and I’ll be trying to kick on more and more after that
BIRTHDAYS are an appropriate time for reflection so, as James McArthur turned 29 on Friday on the eve of a crucial World Cup qualifying double-header, he was perhaps tempted to assess how his international career might begin to mirror the upward curve of domestic exploits.
‘I think I’ve done better at my club than I have done in internationals,’ says McArthur. ‘That’s frustrating because there is no greater pride than playing for your country.
‘When everyone you know is supporting you and then you maybe don’t do as well as you can, that’s frustrating too. But I’m looking to put that right.’
An FA Cup winner with Wigan, £7million McArthur is the fulcrum of a Crystal Palace team soaring in the English Premier League this autumn. His manager, Alan Pardew, has been purring with praise for the midfielder who he stresses has no equal at Selhurst Park for the combination of box-to-box energy plus assurance. ‘It’s difficult to duplicate with this group,’ said Pardew. ‘So it’s important we keep him fit.’
When fit, McArthur routinely keeps either Joe Ledley or Yohan Cabaye out of the Palace midfield. When selected for Scotland duty, he is more often the odd man out. Since the 1-0 win over Croatia in June 2013 that launched Gordon Strachan’s tenure, McArthur’s only competitive start was a scoring one — last September’s 3-2 home defeat to Germany.
With Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher, James Morrison and Barry Bannan established contenders for the central midfield slots and John McGinn featuring impressively among the new wave in the spring, McArthur has always been entirely respectful of the deep competition.
Yet for an English top-flight regular and ferocious self-improver, it’s clear that the dissatisfaction with his Scotland output is a source of irritation as he reached another milestone, that of his 25th senior appearance.
He wants to perform better when he is afforded the chance by Strachan. And he craves more of those chances. The landmark cap earned against Lithuania arrived six years after his first in a 3-0 friendly win over the Faroe Islands.
Now that Brown has stepped aside by retiring from Scotland service at the age of 31, McArthur can sense the opportunity to take advantage of the Celtic captain making way for the second time in his career.
Three months following that substitute debut against the Faroes, McArthur made his first start and scored his first Scotland goal thanks to Brown being injured in the warm-up for a Carling Nations Cup tie against Northern Ireland.
McArthur adds: ‘We are gutted that Broony is not here, but he needs to do what’s best for him as well. There’s that space there to fill and I’ll be doing everything I can do try fill that. I’m trying to do well here and I’m trying to become a regular. A 25th cap is a good landmark and obviously I’ll be trying to kick on more and more after that. ‘It shows you how strong the midfield is that, even though he’s not been playing as much, James Morrison sat on the bench in Malta. ‘I thought Barry Bannan was excellent in that match. The game really suited him, he controlled it. He was excellent. Instrumental.’
Injuries have played a disruptive role, too, in forcing McArthur to miss Scotland action. He sat out three months with damaged ankle ligaments in the spring.
And last month Bannan impressed in that 5-1 victory while McArthur watched from home as he continued to be nursed back from the most troubling setback of his career.
A typically full-pelt start to pre-season came to an abrupt and excruciating halt. Problems with a quad muscle sending pain shuddering through his knee were not an easy fix, leaving McArthur fearful over the extent of the damage done to his immediate ambitions.
‘Every time I tried to push off there was a pain sensation going through my knee,’ he reveals. ‘I had no power at all in it. If I was in full running it was fine. But every time I stopped and started it was like my leg was lagging behind.
‘At one point during it, you start to worry more for your career as well. It was the same with my ankle last year.
‘As a player, you always worry about things like that because the game means so much to you.
‘You just panic a wee bit more than you should when it’s a pain that’s not really common. Or you wonder: Why is it still there?
‘It’s quite frustrating. It wasn’t a case of fearing for my career, it was fearing how long it would be and not knowing.
‘With this, no one knew how long it would be. How long it would take to settle down. It’s patella rec fem pain. By the time I was able to just get back running in a straight line again,
There is no greater pride than playing for your country. It’s so frustrating when you know that everyone is supporting you and you don’t do as well as you can do If you step off it, you know someone else will be there to nick your place in the team
I was buzzing. I did my ankle last year, which was part of the problem. ‘The specialist said: “You did nothing for three months, you came back and played five games at the end of the season then you don’t do anything for a while and then come back in pre-season and hammer your body. You break down”. ‘Thankfully, the physios at Palace are excellent and made sure they did everything to get me back out again. They still don’t want me doing too much, but they’ll control that and I feel that’s getting the best out of me. I feel stronger every day now.’ Palace’s handling of McArthur has been impressive at medical and management level, then. The former Hamilton man returned as Pardew gave £27m striker Christian Benteke his debut and Palace have surged up the table ever since with three wins and two draws from five games.
The starting side looks stronger in every department thanks to the summer signings of French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, defender James Tomkins from West Ham and England recall Andros Townsend.
‘Benteke has been brilliant, not only with his goals but his hold-up play,’ notes McArthur. ‘Townsend, Tomkins, Mandanda. When you look at those signings, you see the quality and where the club is trying to go. We’ve now got a fear factor, teams are worried about us when we get players in the box. That’s a good feeling.
‘Cabaye happened to miss out last weekend. When you’ve someone like that on your bench, you know you’re doing something right. The club is going forward because the squad is so much stronger.
‘Everyone starting right now wants to do as well as they can to keep that position. You know that if you step off it, two per cent, someone else will be there to nick your place. Under Tony Pulis and Neil Warnock, we were more rigid, sitting in, playing more channel balls or more direct balls. Now we’re mixing it up. We’re pressing teams, passing the ball. We’re obviously playing it long at times but the manager has different game plans for different games.
‘It has been a very enjoyable start to the season. We’ve signed very good players who have been instrumental, getting us to where we are in the league right now.’