James McFadden has set the SFA on a collision course with Celtic.
The chances of success for the Scotland national team are entirely dependent on the backing of Celtic as Gordon Strachan discovered during the doomed World Cup qualifying campaign.
If McFadden and Alex McLeish are to make a success of managing the national team they will be dependent on the goodwill and support of the Scottish champions who are likely to provide more than half of the players for the national side.
McLeish concedes that if Rangers hadn’t paid the EBT money to players, they would have been behind Celtic. Here’s hoping they take him back. pic.twitter.com/zbzqkQMBzT
— Arsène Parçelie (@Arsene_Parcelie) February 14, 2017
Before he decided to resign Stewart Regan decided to sign up for a bizarre pair of international friendlies against Peru on May 29 and onto Mexico on June 2.
Celtic will be playing Champions League qualifiers in the second week of July that will be much more important to Scottish clubs than any success that the international side can achieve.
Thanks to the efforts of Brendan Rodgers’ squad over the last two seasons Premiership clubs have each picked up £700,000 with Aberdeen and Dundee collecting £1m plus from transfer fees.
Brendan Rodgers and Peter Lawwell have already spoken out against the mid-summer friendlies but buoyed by a win over Hungary McFadden seems to think that two pointless friendlies are more important than Champions League qualifiers.
Explaining his views to The Sun the Scotland coach said: “There is no one who definitely won’t be on the trip. If people are selected and pull out when they aren’t injured, then they will have to face the consequences.
“We are trying to build a team that can go into the Nations League and win the group. We need everybody there to try and build a team and make sure we are ready for it.
“There will be decisions made on certain players because of the amount of games they have played and the amount of rest they will get in the summer, but that will be discussed nearer the time.
“If players are selected then pull out and we find out they weren’t injured then I’m afraid they probably won’t be selected again.”
