Who is Billy Stark to criticise Tony Watt?
The Scotland u-21 coach has had the good fortune to work with Watt whose wages are paid for by Celtic.
Such was Watt’s form that he was called into the full Scotland squad for the World Cup tie in June away to Croatia.
Five goals from six starts and three substitute appearance is good going at u-21 level, especially for a 19 year old playing in the hardest position on the pitch.
International football is dependent on the goodwill of clubs who release their players, often they are returned injured or disillusioned after international duty.
Clubs benefit from the experience that players get with their country but club football can survive without internationals, the reverse doesn’t apply.
Yesterday when naming his squad for the upcoming u-21 internationals Stark was asked about the absence of Watt who has scored twice in three appearances for Lierse in the Belgian league.
Rather than give a diplomatic answer the Scotland coach decided to go into detail about the strikers absence. As well as damaging Watt it might cause some clubs to think twice about releasing players if off field matters are going to be aired in public.
Discussing Watt’s absence Stark explained: “It’s something that was highlighted at Lierse and Neil Lennon was then forced to comment on it.
“I’ll address it too as Tony has to work on his fitness.
“Every time he’s come to us he’s flagged it up that his fitness isn’t what it should be. It’s hard for us to help him gain that fitness.
“I just felt the last couple of games it has been shown up a bit and I want to go with ones that are fully fit.”
Stark added: “It’s normal that you get boys who have problems they need to overcome.
“Snodgrass had a different thing but it’s fantastic how he’s turned his whole life round and is now one of the top men in England.
“I want to help Tony develop and sometimes they need a knock to show them they need to do more. It’s about personal responsibility.
“We’ve all been there as teenagers and you want to have a good time but sacrifices need to be made.
“Nobody likes criticism and it wasn’t very veiled criticism. Will this be a wake-up call?
“I’m sure Neil has tried that many times so I really don’t know. I’m just doing the best for my squad – and hopefully for Tony.”
While Stark gathers together fully fit young players including Lewis Toshney and a midfielder from the third tier of Scottish football Watt will gain extra time adapting to life in Lierse preparing to play against clubs like Standard Liege, Anderlecht and Club Brugges.
Former Rangers (IL) and Hearts (IA) director Campbell Ogilvie remains as President of the Scottish Football Association.
CLICK HERE for Watt’s Scotland u-21 record
Stark was simply repeating what Neil Lennon and the coach of Liege had already said.
tony watt has the abiity to become a topclass striker if he works at his gameand his attitude
I dont know what Tony is doing wrong in training ?? But any time i have seen him play his fitness looks very good to me. I also believe he played 90 minutes vs Anderlecht at the weekend…..hardly sounds like an unfit guy to me !
I disagree. I rate the kid he has some very obvious attributes & I hope he comes back from Belgium fit, a better player & with more 1st team games under his belt. BUT if Stanley Menzo & Lenny are both saying he’s not as fit as he should be then there MUST be underlying problems. They simply wouldn’t say otherwise.. & Tony Watt would probably still be here pushing hard for a 1st team place. As for Stark again I think he’s only highlighting what others have said & maybe it IS the wake up call the boy needs. I don’t believe for a second these guys would all be singing from the same hymn sheet if it wasn’t in Tony’s best interests. We’ve seen it before.. young kid bursts on the scene only to disappear a year or two later in to oblivion because he thought he’d made it.. he wasn’t focused/living his life in the right manner. Tony has an opportunity all of us dreamt about.. if they’re telling him to get fitter, then FFS get fitter! do whatever is required. To me this looks like an excercise in tough love but if that’s what it takes Tony himself & us as fans will be thanking Menzo/Lenny/Stark in a couple of years time.
Totally agree….. but with a different spin on it . He’s a bit like Samaras in that there’s games you know he’s just not interested in, and you can tell it within 20 mins into the game (Samaras – AC Milan) how he lasted the 90 mins is beyond me =/. Tony Watt thinks he can get away with it because of “Barcelona”. He’s looks fit enough to me, probably a lot fitter than NL ever was when he played imho. He needs to change his attitude or become the next Derek Riordan for example, great potential but crap attitude
and by the way ‘get fitter’ is often football’s way of saying cut out the ‘extra curricular’ activities & concentrate on your football.. whether it’s diet, boozy nights out, girls.. whatever. Maybe another reason Celtic chose to loan him to a Belgian club rather than Hibs or Aberdeen as were mooted or a number of English clubs.
Stark should put a fkn sock in it!
Tony’s not his player , he’s a Celtic player, all be it out on loan, talk like this could seriously damage this lads reputation and more importantly his career.
Billy, you’re a fkn u 21 coach, learn your fkn place and let people who are responsible for dealing with players worth multi million pounds and hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions in wages deal with the welfare of the players they are responsible for.
Losing players in international duty is bad enough, meaningless friendlies worse, but when a player is worth the kind of money Watt most certainly be worth in the future and the multi million pound competitions he wil be responsible for playing in, hopefully with celtic, he shouldn’t be risking himself playing in any youth set up or their semi pro loud mouthed coaches who are willing to feed the reputation of one of his charges to the scum in the scoddish scumbag press.
Severely disappointed in Billy, he’s been in the game long enough to know how it works.
HH
Billy Stark is only trying to help the lad,at the end of the day it will be up to the attitude and application of the player himself. I dont want him to mess up and neither do you brother, neither does Stark or Lenny but Stark is entiteled to his opinion hail hail
Watt is undoubtedly a good player but he has the potential to become a great player so if that means working on his fitness more to achieve that then thats what he has to do. Billy Stark is maybe jumping on the bandwagon with his comments but he is only echoing what Lenny and Menzo have already said. Still think it is Scotland U21’s loss that he is not in the squad though.
Hail Hail.
That’s all three of his current managers comming to the same conclusion. What really disappoints me is that the potential he showed at beginning of last season culminating in his fantastic goal against Barcalona is now on a sticky wicket.
I honestly can’t see him back in the hoops mainly because by the time if/when he returns I think Stokes and Pukki will cement their places and I fully expect us to purchase another top class striker in January. Celtic have given him an excellent chance to become a top star but it’s plainly obvious that there is something in the lads make up that is stopping his progression.
Hail hail
No doubt the lad has issues Jimbo, 18/19yr olds are just getting a few bob in their pockets for the first time and like any that age want to go out and enjoy themselves and in Tonys case you can through in his celeb status to deal with, hence Lenny packing him off to Belgium.
What he needs is some guidance and counceling. What he doesn’t need is people he trusts and looks up to lining up to expose him to the filth in the press no matter what his short comings may be. They should be shielding and protecting him from these fkn hyenas he’s just a boy ffs!!
Lenny was very diplomatic when talking about the lad, the p#### in Belgium was making the most of his 15mins of fame, where for the first time in his puff the press outside his little country were actually interested in what he had to say, and I’m sorry, as much as I loved Stark in the hoops and his dear friendship with TB, he should know better and keep his gub zipped instead of adding fuel to the flames, because that’s all he’s done by speaking to the scoddish presstitutes in the manner he did.
I cannot for the life of me see how Billy could possibly think he was helping tony by doing this.
HH
Through=throw…Dho!
I agree Billy could have been more sensitive regarding the situation, ‘ How about something like the lad is lacking match fitness at the moment due to not having much game time under his belt these last few months ‘ .
The Scottish media have no sensitivity when it comes to selling newspapers, they create images for players & managers etc, bad boys etc, let’s hope with Watt the lazy unfit image doesn’t become regular regurgitated nonsense through out the lads career..
The young lad is qaulity, hopefully he uses all this guff to motivate himself further and knuckles down while on loan and deals with the issues whatever they or it are, so when it is time to come back home he flying and ready to make it hard for NL & BS to leave him out their starting elevens. Let his football do his talking on the pitch.
HH
This coming from a failed manager , a failed no2 to a failed manager , a nobody as a manager , if these comments came from someone successful then a would sit up and take notice but him , sorry no . However was a very good player
I agree with stark. If he is not fit due to lack of commitment he shouldn’t be considered
Billy Stark has every right to criticise Tony Watt. Are you seriously telling us that you have the right to criticise people on here, but Stark has no right to criticise someone who has been in his team? He was asked a question – he answered, giving his clear reasoning? What is your problem?
Do yer talkin in the pitch son. Whatever pitch they let you on. And don’t listen to Any bullshit. Don’t let your family down because we all believe in you HH.
Watt needs a kick up the jacksy! Billy Stark is spot on, his ego has inflated greatly after scoring against barca. 3 managers have now highlighted that his fitness levels are poor, they cant all be wrong as they’ve all worked with Watt.
This is a key time for him, he either does a Charlie Mulgrew and grows up, puts in the hours on the training field and reaches his potential or he adopts the poor me mantra, sulks, thinks he’s great and everyone else is wrong in which case he’ll be playing junior football within 5 years!
There’s a reason he’s on loan, he has a bad attitude and the hope is he’ll mature in belgium. Good call by stark and definately the correct one.
It’s incredible the amount of people that know about Watt’s bad attitude!
With such a multitude of problems it’s strange that he’s decided to get out of his comfort zone, head over to somewhere completely unknown and scored twice in three appearances.
I wonder if any other teenager from the west of Scotland will ever make it at Celtic with so many folk ready to jump on third hand stories and repeat them.
Spot on Joe. Neither Lenny, Stark or Menzo have said the player has a bad attitude or an inflated ego they have simply said his fitness levels are an issue, there is a big difference. To make the leap from issues surrounding his fitness to accusing the guy of having an inflated ego or bad attitude is out of order imo, even more so when there is no basis for such accusations.
Fair enough his overall fitness isn’t maybe what it should be, it probably has more to do with him being a young player and being a little naive when it comes to understanding that it’s not all just about what he can do with a ball at his feet but that his overall fitness is just as crucial. Some people need to get off the kid’s back, he has had the guts to go out on loan to a foreign country at such a young age leaving all the comforts of home behind to improve himself and become a better player when it would have been so much easier for him to stay at home and settle for being on the fringes of the Celtic first team. He should be applauded not castigated.
Hail Hail.
Well said Joe, to read some comments
You would think he was getting into fights on the streets of Glasgow then telling childish lies about getting beat up by four sevvco supporters, or causing rammys in his local kebab shop acting like a ned, or getting bladdered on international duty, drinking in he bar through the night and abusing respectable guest drunk the next mid-day.
All I see is a lad Lenny though would benefit from a spell away from Glasgow and the opportunity to work in a different environment and the chance to play every week with another pro team.
For whatever reason.
Maybe we should test the fitness levels of every pro player in Scotland, I think Tony would do pretty well in the results.
HH