No Gray Areas - Scotland set for cup win
The Home Nations Cup (Carling Nations Cup) is back and I'm very excited that this great competition has returned to the international football calendar. I was involved in it as a player back in the day and I always looked forward to the tournament. After all, there's bound to be some rivalry amongst the different teams and that makes for good, hard, competitive football matches.
The big story of course is that the English FA have decided they don't want to be involved this time round and whereas I'm disappointed by that, I'm not the slightest bit surprised. For the FA, the World Cup and European Championships are seen as the competitions they are desperate to win and they obviously feel that being able to pick and choose who they play in international friendlies is a better option that playing against the other four Home Nations teams.
It could be that it's a decision based on commercial reasons or it could be that they feel that playing against more varied teams gives them better preparation for qualifiers and the two big tournaments I've already mentioned. It's their prerogative but I think it's a shame, not to mention the fact that there will be a few England fans out there that would have looked forward to a tournament that England had a really great chance of winning.
Who's going to win it then? Scotland. But before you shout "of course he's going to say that!" hear me out. As I've said before when writing for Betfair, Scotland don't boast international stars such as Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Denis Law right now.
Darren Fletcher is a great player who is a regular starter for one of the biggest clubs in the world and Charlie Adam is already a super player and will only get better, but beyond that household names are few and far between. But there are a handful of good, established Premier League players such as Barry Bannan, Phil Bardsley, Alan Hutton, Craig Gordon and James Morrison who are now more than ready to start making a name for themselves on the international scene.
That's not to say the other teams don't have a few high-quality individuals themselves but I like what I've seen of Craig Levein so far and I think he'll be desperate to win this competition. He has every chance of doing just that.
Andy Gray is now on Twitter so follow him for his exclusive tips and his take on the biggest stories in football each week.
Published: 7 Feb 2011
Graham Stirling (February 8, 2011 3:33 PM) said:
You balloon Gray!! Barry Bannon is hardly an established Premier League player! Christ, he's that young hge's hardely an established human being!!
Horace Horlicks (February 9, 2011 12:05 PM) said:
A brave call Andy. Scotland the brave you might say. But I think the Republic of Ireland may have some say in the matter. I think bonnie Scotland will be taking the middle road while Ireland will be on the high road to the Nations Championship. The Republic will Duff the Scots with a big shillelagh.
Best Wishes Horace