Hickey and Hepburn to Bayern

[Smokerson]

Its just the way the world is now that it looks like he cant be bothered playing for the under 21s. Would be interested to hear his reasons why, I suspect its a mix of doing a bit of travelling and an arrogance that he should be in the full squad. Are all his parents / grandparents scottish?

Again, without knowing the reasons why its hard to really comment but if its for the above you cant help but think, what is the point of bringing negative attention to yourself, just be humble that you have been called up and go and play the game with the 21s, enjoy  it and learn from the experience.

Also not sure how anyone can say he is definitely a better player than Taylor at this moment.

[eez-eh]

On one hand I can kind of understand why he wouldn’t want to travel that distance to play youth football coached by Scott Gemmell. It’s probably nice to get a break when you’re adjusting to life in a new country at his age.

It doesn’t look great though. I think the problem is whether he would have the same attitude to the senior team, which based on this evidence there’s got to be a decent chance of. Can’t blame Clarke for giving him a wide berth until anything changes.

[craigkillie]

He is already costing himself opportunities with this petulant stance though. Look at the November fixtures when a few players dropped out and we ended up chucking Anthony Ralston on at LWB for the last couple of minutes against Denmark. If Hickey hadn't pretended to be injured so he could pull out of the U21s then that could easily have been him.

We haven't had a proper friendly in years, so playing in the U21s is more or less his only chance to impress in a Scotland strip. If he'd been turning up and doing that there might have been an opportunity to seize with these two friendlies coming up, but instead he has put himself in the position of looking disruptive or as though it would set a bad example by calling him up. He is clearly being terribly advised by someone in his life.

[the snudge]

If he does think he is good enough for the full team then fair play. I like that attitude. We need more players with a bit of arrogance combined with hard work. 

Gemmil comes over as a complete twat and his u21 team are horrid to watch, Bologna are within their rights to look after a top asset. 

[craigkillie]

They're actually not within their rights, it's literally written into the rules that they have to release players for international duty. I don't think the issue is with them though.

[the snudge]

2 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

They're actually not within their rights, it's literally written into the rules that they have to release players for international duty. I don't think the issue is with them though.

I know it's in the rules but if he has a slight pull of a muscle, knock etc then Bolonga are not going to send him. 

[LiviLion]

Anyone genuinely raging that he doesn't want to play for the U21s is a bit of a fucking simpleton tbqh. 

First team starter every week in Serie A and he doesn't want to travel and risk injury to play for Scotland Gemmill, a disc race.

[charger29]

They're actually not within their rights, it's literally written into the rules that they have to release players for international duty. I don't think the issue is with them though.

I thought this rule was just for the senior international team i.e. A team

Does this rule apply to younger age groups as well?

[Clown Job]

47 minutes ago, LiviLion said:

Anyone genuinely raging that he doesn't want to play for the U21s is a bit of a fucking simpleton tbqh. 

First team starter every week in Serie A and he doesn't want to travel and risk injury to play for Scotland Gemmill, a disc race.

I like how people are trying to frame it as not wanting to play for Gemmill instead of not wanting to play for Scotland 

Do you think if it was another manager in charge of the U21’s he would show up?

[LiviLion]

7 minutes ago, Clown Job said:

I like how people are trying to frame it as not wanting to play for Gemmill instead of not wanting to play for Scotland 

Do you think if it was another manager in charge of the U21’s he would show up?

I like how people are framing it as not wanting to play for Scotland instead of not wanting a silly wee kick about.

[Quentin Taranbino]

It's an incredibly frustrating scenario to watch play put as a Scotland fan.

Is Hickey 'too good' for the under 21s? Yes almost certainly. Would he gain alot of knowledge or experience from playing with the under 21s? Unlikely. Should he be involved in the senior squad? Probably yes.

However, he can't be that naive to not realise how this looks on him. Its borderline stupidity on his part to not understand how this will look to Steve Clarke as the senior manager.

In any job, you can be the highest skilled person in the company but if you aren't a team player or refuse to take your turn making the tea - rightly or wrongly - you should realise it ain't gonna be plain sailing and that you will ruffle feathers. If he is content with this situation then fair enough to him.

Steve Clarke should always pick the best squad players available to him and if Hickey is one of those then he should be included. However, I think Clarke has made a point about building and creating a good atmosphere within the Scotland camp and he will be in the best position to judge whether involving Hickey will hinder that or whether it's unlikely to be an issue. I trust his judgement. 

[Clown Job]

16 minutes ago, LiviLion said:

I like how people are framing it as not wanting to play for Scotland instead of not wanting a silly wee kick about.

So is that a no you don’t think he would show up with a different manger then?

 

[velo army]

Is anyone itk about his reasons for not wanting to play for the U21s? I'm just reading a lot of supposition and creating narratives based on sparse data. He's played more minutes than any other teenager in the top 5 leagues. It could be that Bologna's management of him involves him not playing pointless extra matches for the U21s and risk injury. That's probably the more generous assumption and the one I'm likely to stick with.

Hopefully he's in the squad for the friendly against Poland. It would be good to give him the second half with Robbo having a wee rest.

[Bing.McCrosby]

Just now, velo army said:

Is anyone itk about his reasons for not wanting to play for the U21s? I'm just reading a lot of supposition and creating narratives based on sparse data. He's played more minutes than any other teenager in the top 5 leagues. It could be that Bologna's management of him involves him not playing pointless extra matches for the U21s and risk injury. That's probably the more generous assumption and the one I'm likely to stick with.

Hopefully he's in the squad for the friendly against Poland. It would be good to give him the second half with Robbo having a wee rest.

Or with paterson unfortunately not getting first team games hickey could be tried on the right. Poland friendly would be an ideal time. 

[Mr Tourette]

I tend to think he just wants to consolidate his position in the Bologna team and is quite happy doing only that. If he continues to perform as he has been doing then it is only a matter of time before he gets called up to the senior squad. He may not even be too fussed about playing for them either, I wouldn’t know

Fair play to him either way. Not many, if any, Scottish teenagers have ever played this much first team football in a top European league in my memory (and that’s going back some time)

[Satoshi]

For me, this isn't a clear cut case.

Ideally, the U21s would be a staging ground for the senior set up, playing a similar style of football and there should a clear path and linkage between that and the senior team.  Not sure that is necessarily the case, but it should be and U21 football should help players when they eventually make the step up.

However, I can also see the risks of giving a teenager (with a growing and changing body) so many minutes. It was painful watching Pedri - a simply magnificant player - playing pretty much every minute for Barcelona, for Spain to the Euros semi final, then the Olympics. It's bad for all football fans if players like that struggle with injuries later because they were over-used as teenagers (Michael Owen would be another example).

So I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt for him, and hope he can continue developing in Serie A. He's ready for the senior set up, and I hope he is willing to sit on the bench if he is called up.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Satoshi

[red23]

Shock Hickey is from Glasgow, i presume he's a Rangers fan then yeah? and this is probably where it all stems from.

[craigkillie]

52 minutes ago, red23 said:

Shock Hickey is from Glasgow, i presume he's a Rangers fan then yeah? and this is probably where it all stems from.

Yes, there are famously no Glaswegians or Rangers fans in the Scotland team.

[Aidan]

, i presume he's a Rangers fan then yeah?

Nope

[Bing.McCrosby]

Steve Archibald in the paper today also suggesting Hickey at right back. It makes alot of sense.

Even if he's not as familiar playing there hes a big jump in quality from any competitors for the position currently.

I could see Clarke doing this quite easily. He had Robertson on the right a while ago (which was terrible). He plays Tierney at left centre back and Mctominay at right centre back. So he's not against trying things out. Plus Hickey is playing there occasionally for his club. Could be a good solution for us.