Robbie Neilson delivers Hearts transfer advice as 'phenomenal' star faces career-first opportunity
The former Hearts and Leicester City defender believes has had his say on a current Gorgie star that is struggling for minutes.
After Scotland qualified for what will be their first World Cup in 28 years with a 4-2 victory over Denmark on Tuesday night, a couple of Hearts stars played their part.
When Rasmus Kristensen was sent off for the visitors, Lawrence Shankland came off the bench to make an impact as he tapped in from Lewis Ferguson’s corner to square the game up at 2-2. At the other end of the pitch, veteran goalkeeper, Craig Gordon made some vital saves to keep Scotland’s World Cup dream alive.
The Hearts hero will be 43 years of age by the time next year’s tournament comes around in Mexico, Canada and the USA. If selected for the tournament, he will be the second oldest player ever to play at a World Cup finals, behind former Egypt goalie, Essam El-Hadary.
Gordon still remains second fiddle in the Steve Clarke selection pecking order, as Angus Gunn is expected to return as Scotland number one when fit, however Gordon’s lack of minutes at club level may negatively affect his chance of being the squad altogether at his age. Because of this, Gordon’s former Jambos teammate, Robbie Neilson advises that he is sent out on loan.
Gordon should go out on loan to capitalise on ‘phenomenal’ Scotland performance
Speaking on BBC Sportsound’s Scottish Football Podcast, Neilson said: “from the outside looking in, the Scottish camp looks as if it has a phenomenal relationship between the players and the staff as a real togetherness, it looks as if they've now come through a long, difficult period together with some success.
“When you grow up as a kid, the first thing you want to do is play for Scotland, the next thing you want to do is play for Scotland in the World Cup and there's been generations of players that haven't managed to do that, this group now have. So it's a phenomenal achievement and now the key is getting everyone fit and getting guys like Craig Gordon game time, because I thought he was phenomenal last night, so perhaps these guys need to go on loan to get minutes.”
After being out with injury at the start of the season, Gordon lost his place as number one Hearts stopper to Alexander Schwolow, who has kept five clean sheets in eight matches since signing from Union Berlin in the summer. Fellow Scotland and Hearts keeper, Zander Clark has also been left out in the cold for club and country.
‘Haiti, Peru and New Zealand...’
When asked by host Ray Bradshaw what the ideal scenario would be in terms of Scotland’s group, Neilson jokily responded that he wouldn’t be wanting any glory ties. He said: “I’ll go with Haiti, Peru and New Zealand. Just some teams that we can beat and get through to the next stage for the first time!
“But seriously, it’s a difficult one because you want to progress but you also want to see these big games, don’t you? So I think from a purely football perspective you want to see against a Brazil or something like that on the world stage. But hopefully in the third game of the group when it doesn’t matter and we’ve already qualified!”