Scotland show that international friendlies are a waste of time

The point of mid-season international friendlies surely needs to be questioned. The issue is not a new one and the club v country row has rumbled on for many years.

Fit

There was the famous case of Ryan Giggs always being miraculously fit for competitive Wales matches but never being quite fit for the friendlies. Steve Gerrard made an amazing recovery a few months ago when he was unable to play in an England friendly on the Wednesday but recovered in time to play an important match for Liverpool at the weekend.

In England’s case we have had to watch the absolute farce of the entire team being substituted at half-time, making the game a joke and the winning of an international cap too cheap.

Meaningless

If I was a club manager and I had a Scottish international player in my team would I be happy for him to travel all the way to Japan to play in an absolutely meaningless game against Japan this weekend? Of course I wouldn’t. Is it any surprise then that so many Scottish players have pulled out of the game through ‘injury’.

I have to say that although this type of thing has always been a problem the Scots are currently taking things to a new level! No less than ten of the squad have now withdrawn.

Injury

Darren Fletcher, Alan Hutton, Scott Brown, Shaun Maloney, Steven Naismith, Scott Robertson, Robert Snodgrass, Kevin Thomson, Garry O’Connor and Danny Fox have all had to miss out on the trip due to injury. Does anyone want to guess how many of those ten will be fit for their club matches next weekend?

Let us not forget that James McFadden, Ross McCormack, Chris Iwelumo, Kenny Miller, James Morrison, Kris Commons and Gary Naysmith were all left out of the original squad due to injury as well.

Rested

Of the group of players that have withdrawn, only Thomson, Snodgrass and Fox didn’t play last weekend. Scott Brown has withdrawn after being told by a Harley Street doctor that he should rest for at least a week. Do we think he would have rested if Celtic had been playing an important game?

It is understandable that the clubs wouldn’t want their players to go but I find it highly unlikely that the players themselves would not want to play. The Scots are a very proud race and I would hope that pulling on that Scottish shirt would mean the world to each and every player every time they do so, whatever the importance of the match. If any players are ‘swinging the lead’ to get out of travelling and playing then they are seriously short changing the fans and people of their country.

Pinnacle

The main problem, of course, is that the game has been arranged at all. It serves no purpose and has allowed the game as a whole to be taken into disrepute. An international cap should be the pinnacle of a player’s career but players who earn their first Scotland cap on Saturday will know that there were seventeen players selected ahead of them but were unavailable. That takes a bit of the gloss off it doesn’t it?

The question is then, should we stop this farce and do away with international friendlies or should international managers follow Fabio Capello’s lead and demand that players report even if they are injured so that the international team medical staff can assess any injury for themselves?

Something has to be done because this Scotland game in Japan is a total waste of everyone’s time.