Hearts talent lands ringing Scotland endorsement as Steve Clarke details brutal chat with Jambos star
There are a couple of Hearts players involved in the current Scotland squad for November.
Steve Clarke has heaped praise on Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon for his response to Euro 2024 disappointment - as he talks up a Tynecastle prospect.
Scotland’s national team face huge World Cup qualifiers versus Greece and Denmark later this month, where at least a draw in the former match sets up a shootout with the latter at Hampden for a place in next year’s major tournament. Head coach Clarke has been faced with somewhat of a keeper crisis with few senior options playing club level football currently and number one Angus Gunn is injured.
42-year-old Craig Gordon has been called upon alongside Rangers’ Liam Kelly and Falkirk’s Scott Bain, and the Hearts goalkeeper is the most experienced option between the sticks. He is back-up to Alexander Schwolow currently in Gorgie but will fight to try and help the nation to a first World Cup since 1998 this month, having previously been omitted from the Euro 2024 squad. Keeper coach Chris Woods will play a part in who starts but Clarke is full of respect for the Hearts hero.
Steve Clarke on Craig Gordon
When asked about if the decision to omit Gordon from his Euros squad was one of his toughest, he said: “Yes. I think to leave any player out of the squad... I left John Souttar out of that squad as well. Those two conversations were really, really difficult to have. It's a credit to both players that they're still very much in my thoughts, very much in the squad, because that shows the resilience and the character of both players. They more or less said, I'll show you. They're both back involved again, which is what you want as a manager or a head coach. You want that positive reaction to a disappointment. Both of those players are a credit to themselves.
“I spoke to Craig last month. He was in the squad last month. I tend not to speak to too many players. I always go to the previous squad and the ones that I'm not selecting. I'll have a little chat with them and explain why I haven't selected them this time. That's basically the way that I've worked for the last six and a half years. It seems to have worked okay. Like I say, my relationship with most of the players is pretty good.
"Woodsy, he loves all his goalies. He loves them all. No, no, he was happy with everybody. He eventually came to me and said you need to make the decision because they've all trained really well. There was nothing between the three of them. I've said that on a number of occasions about the goalkeeping group.
What Hearts talent was in the Scotland squad?
“They work really well together. There's a good harmony among them. They understand how difficult it is to be the number one goalie and then how difficult it is to be the number two and how difficult it is to be the number three. They all seem to buy into whatever role they're asked to do. It's something that people make a lot of. I don't worry too much about it, if I'm being honest, because I've got great confidence in Chris and the goalkeeping squad."
Another Hearts keeper that Clarke has had a look at is Liam McFarlane. The Scotland U21s international joined up with Clarke’s squad in October for senior exposure as he builds that up at club level out on loan with Alloa Athletic. That type of integration won’t happen in November with the team set for a warm weather camp in Turkey but Clarke is behind the idea to get players like McFarlane involved.
He said: "It's been good. I also had Rory Mahady in one of the camps. I've had a good look at three of the younger ones, the prospects, the ones hopefully for the future. What they need to do is they need to get regular club football and start to pick up that experience. It was a good idea. I think for this camp I just decided a little bit more experience around the place would be better, which is why I've gone for Scott Bain.
“Not in this camp (they won’t be integrated as part of squad). I think if I went and said I'm taking an extra body, my bosses upstairs would be complaining about the extra room, the extra cost, the extra flight. No, no, it's not something that I need to do in this camp. This camp is very concentrated on what we have to do, which is get a result in Greece and then hopefully get the big win here in the game against Denmark"