AFTER yet another Scottish Premiership weekend filled with controversy, drama and yet more Steve Clarke magic, the attention turns to international football and Alex McLeish’s first couple of games in what will be his second spell as Scotland manager.
Mathches against Costa Rica and Hungary will hopefully signal the start of a bright new dawn for Scotland. I have always been a half glass full type of guy.
There is no doubt that even this early in Big Eck’s tenure he needs to hit the ground running or the I told you so brigade will immediately be all over him.
But looking at the squad he has picked and some of the new faces involved, it certainly fills me with optimism going forward.
For the likes of Dylan McGeouch, Oli McBurnie and Barry Douglas, it will be a really exciting time for the trio to have been selected for their maiden international squad.
I was fortunate enough to be capped at every level for my country up to B International level.
It is a huge regret of mine that I never quite made it to the top squad, which was some feat considering Berti Vogts at that time was handing out caps like confetti.
It seemed if you had a handful of good games then you were in with the bold Berti. In fact, it was probably harder not to get capped.
I was actually on a stand by list for one of his full squads but my voodoo doll trick failed miserably as not enough players pulled out injured.
A blessing for the nation some might argue.
But I did manage to play in a B international under Berti Vogts and Rainer Bonhoff. We were up against Germany at Pittodrie and I can recall how excited and nervous I was going to meet up with the squad.
It was one of the proudest moments of my career when I represented Scotland and all the guys who are new picks for this Scotland squad will feel the same and more when they get a cap at full level.
Once you have that cap, no one can take that away from you and they have certainly deserved it after the way they have performed for their clubs.
Dylan McGeouch in particular has been outstanding for Hibs this season. His problem has been staying fit and unfortunately that curse seems to have struck him again.
Oli McBurnie is a player not a lot of people north of the border will be too familiar with or have seen in action regularly but speaking to people within the game in England and the bits and pieces I have seen of him live, all the indications are he is going to be a real find in the striking department for Scotland and could be the perfect foil for Leigh Griffiths long-term.
The squad has some names that the Scotland fans will be looking forward to seeing in dark blue, none more so than Scott McTominay, who continues to hold down a starting spot in a star studded Manchester United midfield.
But it is in the forward areas that we still look a bit thin, which brings me nicely on to someone who will have been a little bit disappointed not to be involved considering his current form. Kris Boyd has been a man revitalised this season under the masterful Steve Clarke. I was a wee bit critical of the big man earlier in the season in this very column for some of his comments whilst still a player. I didn’t think it was helping him nor the team. To be fair, he has toned that down massively and really concentrated on the job in hand at Kilmarnock. And the results have been phenomenal.
Kris has now scored 20 goals in all competitions for Kilmarnock this season. That is some achievement for a player playing outwith the Old Firm.
Steve Clarke seems to have rekindled the fire inside him and from looking like a player winding down in the latter stages of his career, suddenly he is the hottest striker in the Premiership.
It’s all credit to him and I for one am delighted for him.
If Boydy continues to bang in goals at his current rate at club level, he surely cannot be ignored for the end of season friendlies against Peru and Mexico.
It would complete a fairy tale turnaround not only for him but for Kilmarnock too.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel