Looking At Potential Scotland Call-up John Fleck

Date: 20th February 2019

I remember hearing about a fifteen year old John Fleck.

He was supposed to be next big thing at Rangers and would therefore become a future Scotland international. 

The young attacker would break into The Gers first team at the age of sixteen. In 2009-10, Fleck would become a first team regular with the Light Blues. He made twenty-three top team appearances that year (scoring twice) and helped his team secure the league title. 

Legendary Rangers boss Walter Smith would usually keep John on one of the wings and would sometimes play the teenager as a number ten. The youngster would produce some nice performances and at the time it was widely thought a senior Scotland call-up was just around the corner. 

In total, Fleck would win just four under-21 caps for his national team. 

Unfortunately for John Fleck, the young player couldn’t live up to the hype. The once tagged ‘Scotland’s Wayne Rooney’ couldn’t produce consistently enough to stay in the Gers starting eleven and would be loaned out to Blackpool in the 2011-12 season. 

In the summer of 2012, Fleck would leave Ibrox after refusing to sign up to the new company. 

The talented young man would then end up in England’s League One playing for Coventry City. He’d spend four seasons as a regular and would often shine for the Midlands club. 

Fleck would then join Sheffield United in 2016 and he’d help the Blades secure promotion to The English Championship in his first season at Bramall Lane. John settled in well in England’s second tier, playing over thirty games and winning the club’s player of the year award. 

His form has been terrific this term too. Sheffield United currently sit in second place and they are seriously challenging for promotion to the Premier League. John has played in thirty-two league games thus far, scoring twice and creating four assists. 

Fleck is becoming a major influence in United’s central midfield. He’s developed a strong midfield partnership with Oliver Norwood, the two compliment each other well. Fleck also has a manager in Chris Wilder that trusts him and that gives him the responsibility to keep things ticking over in the midfield. 

John has always had street-smarts on the pitch, thus meaning he can protect the ball and hold off challenges. He’s also capable of going in between the lines, dribbling the ball forward (like Paul Gascoigne used to). 

Scotland came calling in November 2018, although Scots boss Alex McLeish has son far resisted fielding the player. 

Late in January, the Scottish midfield star was linked with a move to Premier League side West Ham United.  

2019 could be the year that John Fleck finally realises his potential and breaks into the Scotland team. 

It’s not a certainty though. Scotland have quite a few good midfielders to call upon what with Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Ryan Jack, John McGinn, Stuart Armstrong, Scott McTominay, Kenny McLean and Kevin MacDonald to name but a few. 

Then you’ve got Motherwell producing good young midfield talent, Lewis Ferguson is having a superb season at Aberdeen and Rangers have a defensive midfielder in Ross McCrorie who is improving every day under the guidance of Steven Gerrard. 

Then there’s the new next big thing that came out of the Rangers youth set-up. Billy Gilmour, looks to be an exciting midfield talent that could have the footballing world at his feet. He’s getting rave reviews playing in Chelsea youth teams. The seventeen year old already has six under-21 caps to his name. 

So it’s going to be tough for John Fleck but in truthfulness it’s just good at twenty-seven years of age; that the footballer has managed to knuckle down, forget the hype and carve out a successful career for himself.  He certainly possesses the skill-set to be considered a Scotland international! 

Posted in: Latest News