Friendly matches re-ignite the Club v Country row

Many managers, the most high profile of which was Harry Redknapp at Tottenham, have complained about next week’s international fixtures which come in the week after the English Championship starts and the week before the Premiership starts.

Problem

For some teams, the problem is really severe. For example, Scotland have a friendly against Sweden next Wednesday and four players they will want are Kevin Thomson, Barry Robson, Kris Boyd and Stephen McManus. Those four players all play for Middlesbrough who just twenty-four hours earlier have a Carling Cup tie against Chesterfield.

Clearly Middlesbrough manager Gordon Strachan knew that this could be a problem as he began to build his ‘little Scotland’ in the North-East of England, but to lose four first team players does seem to be a little harsh.

Row

The club versus country row doesn’t interest Scotland manager Craig Levein, however, and he expects all the players he calls up for the game to appear.

“I have had requests for players to be allowed to call off because there are games on the Tuesday night. But the international date has been in the calendar for a long time. I am asking for the players to be available for one game prior to the start of the Euros.”

Levein will not stand for people putting club before country.

“They can’t not come because of club commitments. I have a degree of sympathy, of course, with managers who want to have their best players available for these games. But my allegiances lie only with Scotland and I’ve got to do what is right and I also have to do what I think is fair. I can’t allow some teams to have players call off because they have a game on and not allow others. So, in the interest of fairness to everybody and what I think is best for the national team, then all the players will be called up.”

Expects

Levein expects fellow Scot Strachan to understand that he will be taking four of his players.

“Gordon is very patriotic as well. They are over in Germany just now and I have tried to make contact but it hasn’t been easy. But I am relaxed about it and I think that Gordon is as well. As an international manager you want to accommodate people but in this situation it is impossible for me. The two things are never going to align completely. Remember, I have been on the other side of the fence when players were away for international duty. You accept it. I am trying my best to help people where I can but my main priority, and I keep coming back to it, is to have the best players available for Scotland. There might be cases where you speak to the managers and there are injuries but these things happen. I am sure there will be injuries before the Sweden game and the games beyond that.”

Strange

The timing of the international matches does seem to be very strange and there is no doubt that it will cause huge disruption to club managers. Having said that, it is only one game and the national side must surely pick it’s best players.

The club versus country row will never go away, but surely a little more thought could go into the timing of these friendly games.