Scotland Fans Shouldn’t Care About Allan McGregor Retirement

Date: 13th March 2019

It was announced this week that Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor decided to call time on his international career. 

The goalie had won forty-two caps for Scotland and it was widely expected that he’d be Alex McLeish’s number one as we tried to reach Euro 2020.

Now while I’m a big fan of thirty-seven year old and believe he is a top keeper, I am not overly fussed that he’s decided to hang up his gloves. 

Why? 

Well it’s pretty simple, if a player no longer feels passionate about playing for Scotland or they feel they can’t give their all for the country then they should step aside. 

I was the same when Scott Brown retired twice and whenever any other player has called time on their international career. 

Simply put, I want footballers playing for Scotland that desperately want to wear the jersey and sing (or hum) the national anthem. 

Then there’s the fact we’ve got a pretty decent bunch of goalies to include in our squads. 

I’ve been encouraged by Scott Bain’s recent Celtic performances that have seen him pip Craig Gordon to the number one spot at Parkhead. 

Bain looked very good in The Hoops Europa League games against Valencia and he’s a goalie that doesn’t seem flustered with the ball at his feet. The one main issue I’ve always had with McGregor has been his poor distribution. 

I hope Scott adds to his one cap in the qualifying games against Kazakhstan and San Marino. If he does get the nod then I’ll also be hoping that he can help us to gain two important victories. 

Jordan Archer is once again doing a job in The English Championship with Millwall. So I think he’s a solid back-up stopper. 

I’ve not seen a lot of Jon McLaughlin this season but he did impress at Hearts last term. He has been Sunderland’s number one and they’re chasing promotion, so I can’t really argue against his call-up. 

We’ve got two experienced shot-stoppers in David Marshall and Craig Gordon that we can still call upon if needed and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. 

We’ve also got a talented young keeper in Liam Kelly. The twenty-three year old goalie has impressed in the Scottish Premiership with newcomers Livingston. Only Celtic, Rangers and Kilmarnock have conceded less than Livi’s thirty goals. 

I think Kelly was unfortunate not to be selected in this latest squad. I really like the fact that the goalkeeper bet on himself and left Rangers to get first time football:

“I wasn’t playing at all at Rangers and I’m a football player. I just want to play. It was an easy decision in that respect,” 

“If I want to reach the highest level, I need to play games.”

That decision has been fully vindicated by his appearances and his performances in Scotland’s top tier this year! 

I thank Allan McGregor for his eleven years service as a Scotland goalkeeper and wish him all the best. 

But I’m not going dwell too much on his retirement. We’ve got two fairly decent chances to get ourselves to next summer’s European Championships and we have a good crop of goalkeepers to call upon. 

I want a happy goalie in between the sticks and doing his upmost to keep the ball out of Scotland’s net. The man with the gloves is the goalkeeper that will get all my support! 

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