Fletcher impasse must be addressed to enable striker to lead the line for Scotland, says McLeish

Chief football writer

Friday 21 September 2012

Alex McLeish, the former Scotland manager, yesterday called for common sense in the Steven Fletcher saga and said the Sunderland man would be the ideal player to operate as a lone striker in the World Cup qualifiers.

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Michael Grant

The £12m striker, who has scored three times already this season, has yet to tell the Craig Levein he is willing to play for his country after the pair's relationship broke down. McLeish said it was up to the 25-year-old to show the "cojones" to pick up a phone to Levein and make himself available, but one way or another the impasse between them should be addressed.

"Somebody could sort it out," said McLeish. "Life's too short, and in football management you need your best players and your best players turn you into a better manager. That's the bottom line: it's all about players."I don't know what the impasse is so it's not fair of me to say one way or another that Craig's wrong or Steven's wrong. It would be great if Stevie was only to make a phone call. Has he got the cojones to do that? Hopefully he has, because I'm sure he would want to play for his national team. If anybody can do it [play as a lone striker], it's Steven, but again I don't want there to be big critical headlines against Craig. It's just my opinion."McLeish tried to sign Fletcher when he was manager of both Birmingham City and Aston Villa. "He grew in stature with Wolves over the last two seasons. He was always a handful; strong in the air, he could take it in and he had good skill. And then he started scoring as well. That was the turning point for him; he added the scoring to his technical ability which was the only ingredient that was missing. He's started this season like a house on fire."McLeish, who was national manager throughout 2007, including for the famous Euro 2008 qualifying defeat of France in Paris, said the possible return of Darren Fletcher and Scott Brown meant Scotland could recover from the disappointment of this month's draws with Serbia and Macedonia. "Boys with the tempo of Fletcher and Brown definitely would help us. I don't think all is lost, although we took those two home games for one reason and that was to get off to a flyer."I know Craig's gutted and everybody else that supports Scotland is gutted. But it's in the past. The players respect Craig and seem to want to play for him, now they need a bit of inspiration from them in two hard away games. There's some good talent in the squad, they just didn't really show it on the last two games as much as we would have liked. We're crying out for one of the boys, whether it's Jordan Rhodes or Kenny Miller, to try to muck in and get ourselves in front and stay there."

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Fletcher impasse must be addressed to enable striker to lead the line for Scotland, says McLeish

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