Following Scott Brown’s retirement, the Scotland captaincy is up for grabs, but will McLeish be willing to take a punt on Celtic youngster Kieran Tierney who has captained his country already?
Scott Brown’s decision to retire from international football for the second time of his career has opened up a big head scratcher for incoming Scotland boss Alex McLeish.
When assessing the squad, Brown would have by far been the standout candidate for the captaincy under McLeish, having won 55 caps throughout his 13 years with the national team.
However, with the Celtic skipper no longer as his disposal, the former Rangers boss, who won 77 caps for his country himself, must now make a big decision as to who should be selected as the figure head to hopefully guide the nation to their first major tournament since the world cup in 1998.
Looking at the squad now, there are some obvious candidates for the role, but each individual is fairly contrasting when it comes to age and experience.
Darren Fletcher, who is by far the most experienced player around the national team set up with 80 caps, has captained Scotland on 34 occasions.
The former Manchester United midfielder is a terrific leader and well known influence around any dressing room he has been a part of, but at 34, and with limited appearances for the national team in recent years, it feels like Fletcher’s time may be past.
West Brom’s James Morrison, 31, is also a very senior player with 46 caps and has served as captain on one occasion before and therefore is a plausible option, however, with the likes of Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong and John McGinn amongst others competing for a midfield spot, there is no guarantee the Baggies man will start, especially with the likes of Scott McTominay beginning to rise to prominence at Manchester United.
On top of this, at 31, Morrison would only likely be the figurehead for two or three years before approaching retirement age.
McLeish’s other option would be to make a bold statement by selecting the likes of Kieran Tierney or Andrew Robertson as captain. Despite both players competing for the same position, you would imagine that McLeish will incorporate both youngsters into the team somehow, with the two of them being arguably the best players Scotland have to offer.
Tierney has already captained both his club and country and would no doubt make a great leader, having learnt from the best in Brown, and selecting either full-back as captain would allow them to grow into the position which would ideally be made their own for the next decade.
Tierney and Robertson represent, hopefully, exciting times for Scotland in the coming years, and either would be a welcome addition to the long list of long serving Scotland captains should McLeish opt for either of them.
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