Steve Clarke has stated that he’s already tried to call up Anthony Ralston to the Scotland squad this season.
Ralston finally bagged a deserved call-up for tomorrow’s game against Denmark at Hampden. However, it’s only come about after several months of frustration and heavy criticism from the Celtic support on the snubbing of the right-back.
Clarke didn’t utilise Ralston during the September and October international breaks. He also refused to give him a call-up for the original squad for the current break – instead giving Nathan Patterson and Stephen O’Donnell the nod instead.
However, speaking via the Daily Record, Clarke has moved to state that he did try to call Ralston up previously but couldn’t due to a health issue:
“Tony’s been given a chance by a manager who trusts him a lot to put him in there.He’s stuck by him and credit to the player, he’s taken his chance. He has probably been waiting for it for a long time but he’s really taken it.
“Any time I’ve seen him for Celtic this season he’s been really impressive. I did try to call him up to one of the previous squads but unfortunately a Covid issue put paid to that. It’s nice to have him here now.
“Nathan Patterson and Stephen O’Donnell have both done well for us in the right wing-back position. Celtic obviously play in a different way to us but Tony has attributes that could make him a good wing-back or right-back It will be good to have him in the camp and we’ll have a good look at him in the training sessions.”
Steve Clarke fails to explain 2 other important snubs for Celtic man
Fair enough to an extent. Clarke coming out and stating that he wanted to use Ralston for a previous squad reflects a bit better on his decision-making, but only slightly.
After all, the Scotland boss hasn’t explained why he decided to originally snub Ralston in October. He also didn’t reveal why he wasn’t part of the original squad for the current camp. A decision that was a total slap in the face to the player’s progress this season.
Sure, Clarke is good at explaining how good a player Ralston is now that he’s part of his squad. But these are all things Celtic fans could’ve told the Scotland boss as far back as September. That it’s taken him until November to figure it out is hardly impressive.
Ralston is by far and away the standout right-back in the country at the moment. Yet, for some reason, he can’t get a game ahead of an unspectacular Motherwell right-back and a player who doesn’t get a game for Rangers.
The fact he’s likely to play back-up to O’Donnell is another shocker from Clarke [Daily Record]. He might be the nation’s darling after guiding Scotland to a World Cup playoff spot, but his decision-making on the Celtic man has been totally flawed from the start.
Calling him up doesn’t erase his poor decisions earlier this season. Hopefully, he can see sense and start actually giving Tony some deserved opportunities in a dark blue jersey.
In other news, 46-cap int’l who openly wanted Celtic move last year now “desperate” to leave his club in January
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
