Watt finds a new lease of life back on home turf
Fir Park a perfect fit for Tony
FUELLED by the bravado of youth, Tony Watt used to believe he’d be satisfied by a playing career that took him to his 30th birthday. Lately, the Motherwell striker has been forced into a rethink. Does he really want it all to start fizzling out in a couple of seasons’ time?
To date, Watt the wanderer has played for 12 clubs across locations as diverse as Belgium, Bulgaria and Blackburn, his adventures fuelled in no small part by one iconic Champions League moment as a kid playing for Celtic.
Now 27, he has found personal contentment back on his home turf of Lanarkshire. Married and settled off the pitch, he has now racked up 50 games as a Motherwell player.
‘As a club, Motherwell is perfect for me,’ he says. ‘It’s not about the money at this stage. I’d happily stay here for years to come. They look after me.
‘I’m married, settled and happy but I don’t think anything has changed massively. I think I came to a club who understood me.
‘I went abroad and realised I am better staying here. I want to win trophies. I want to play as many games as possible. I want to play until I am 35-36 at least. I don’t want to put a limit on it. I always said 30-31 but I have probably enjoyed my career more in the last couple of years. I have found a new lease of life.
‘I’ll keep my body right and work as hard as I can to improve it. That just comes with maturity and what you learn over the years.’
This season, his manager needs Watt to step up.
A summer of upheaval has left Graham Alexander shorn of mainstays like Declan Gallagher, Allan Campbell and Devante Cole.
Suddenly Watt finds himself, if not quite a veteran, one of the more senior players on staff.
Although there’s a more grounded air to his personality, he can still be prickly when it comes to assessing his own game.
In one moment he alludes to improvement in his endeavour: ‘I think this is the hardest I have been working and the most all-rounded I have been.’ But when that quote is repeated back to him later in conversation, he snaps back: ‘I don’t think I have always got the credit for the way I pressed or the way I worked.’
Perhaps it’s good for Motherwell that he maintains an edge going into the new Premiership season.
Many have written off the Steelmen going into today’s opener against Hibernian.
Premier Sports Cup performances against Queen’s Park and Airdrie sounded alarm bells and few pre-season predictions have tipped them for a top-half finish.
Watt sounds motivated to prove a point. ‘If somebody with a decent managerial record goes into punditry and says that — the likes of your Gordon Strachans — then maybe I would worry,’ he counters.
‘But it is always people who either don’t have a good managerial career or have chosen not to because they know what comes with it.
‘Okay, we have had a big turnover of players but some might say that is a good thing because it allows the manager to put his stamp on it.
‘If we are 15 games in and there is trouble, then okay but we are four games in and we have won three of them, which put us through in the cup, so we can’t really complain too much.’
Strachan just happens to be the manager who handed Watt his solitary Scotland cap in a friendly against Czech Republic in 2016.
He never did kick on from that one substitute appearance for his country but that doesn’t mean he has abandoned his ambitions to play in dark blue.
First, though, he needs to become more productive, more reliable at club level.
He continues: ‘If I score five or six goals in the first two months of the season, then you never know.
‘I am not hanging my hat on it, but it is achievable. I can see there are places in the squad up for grabs, although I am not thinking about that one bit.
‘My first marker is to play every single game here, but that’s down to performance and work rate.
‘I feel I am doing a great job in helping the team. I can maybe do a bit more in terms of the numbers, last season I got seven goals and nine assists. This time, I am hoping to get double figures in both and see where it takes me.
‘I was proud watching the boys at the Euros in the summer and I went to the Czech Republic game. Patrik Schick’s goal was world class.
‘It was a good buzz, a good game to go and see. It’s amazing to play for your country.’
If Watt enjoyed the novelty of being back inside a football stadium containing a live audience, the prospect of performing in front of 6,500 fans at Fir Park today is a welcome antidote to last season’s empty environment.
There will be up to 2,000 Hibs fans in attendance and Watt expects just as much of a welcome from them as the locals.
‘I can’t wait to get booed!’ he laughs. ‘I don’t know what I have done to deserve that but I get a bit at every stadium I go to.
‘Hopefully the place will be rocking. There’s a responsibility on me this season to turn up and do what I can.
‘If you want to be a big player, you have to deal with pressure and I want to as well as I can here.’
Now would be the perfect time for Watt to finally realise all of that latent potential.