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00:00Well, we're heading into an international break on the horizon, domestic football will
00:06take a short period off. We'll look ahead to the upcoming Scotland Nations League play-off
00:14against Greece. At the time of recording, Steve Clarke will name his Scotland press
00:21conference on Tuesday of this week. There's been a lot of chat around potential new faces
00:28in the squad. Martin, going forward, obviously there's concerns around injuries to certain
00:34players. We know that Lyndon Dykes will not be part of this squad. Aaron Hickey is on
00:40the comeback trail, still not fit enough. And Ben Doak has also undergone surgery on
00:45his thigh. So potential opportunities for some new faces. There's been a couple murmurings
00:53over the last few weeks that Clarke has an eye on George Hurst, who plays for Ipswich
00:58Town. There's also Chris Brady, who's playing in the MLS with Chicago Fire as a potential
01:06goalkeeping option going forward. Heading into this doubleheader, obviously two massive
01:12games for Scotland to remain in Nations League. The A section, would you be quite keen to
01:19see a sprinkling of new faces integrated into the squad?
01:25I absolutely would, but I don't think it's going to happen. Historically, with Steve
01:32Clarke, we'll maybe see a couple of guys in there based on form, but I really feel it's
01:42far more likely that we'll probably see one or two and we won't see a whole lot of them
01:47if anything at all from them in these next two matches. Some of the players, I think
01:54Luke McEwan absolutely deserves a Scotland call-up. I would be surprised if he isn't
01:58called up. I know that central midfield area is highly competitive, but I think he's at
02:04any time he comes on for Celtic, he's hugely impressive. He's having a great season and
02:10he deserves it. A real sort of natural successor for Callum McGregor in the Scotland set-up
02:16and potentially for Celtic in the future. Nicky Caddon before his injury, I think was
02:24probably in line for a Scotland call-up. I think he would have been Hibbs' best player
02:28of the season, as I said earlier. I would have thought with the form Hibbs are in and
02:33the way he was playing, he would have been in line for a call-up. Obviously, the injury
02:37at Celtic Park is probably putting an end to that, which is really disappointing for
02:41him. Kieran Bowie at Hibbs is a player I really like. I think he will be a Scotland
02:47international in the future. Whether we see him in this window, I don't know. I think
02:52the injury he's had this season, it's a late charge and it's not like he's banging in the
02:56goals, but he's definitely a big laddie and he's a handful and I like him and I'd like
03:00to see him playing for Scotland maybe in the World Cup qualifiers later this year. In terms
03:07of the new faces, those are the ones I'd be looking to before I'm looking at someone
03:12like George Hurst. I've no disrespect to the guy. Obviously, he's 26. He's spent his whole
03:23career in the English lower leagues and just because he's playing. Obviously, he's an England
03:31youth international. There's a quality player there, but I've never liked us being blinded
03:37by someone just because they're playing in the Premier League. I would rather see someone
03:45like Kieran Bowie called up over someone like George Hurst, but at the same time, one of
03:53my biggest problems with the way Steve Clarke's picked his squads is it is good that he's
03:59loyal and that breeds a real atmosphere in the squad that we've seen success for. I'm
04:03not questioning it, but it is a bit frustrating when guys who are not in the best form continue
04:11to be called up instead of maybe experimenting with someone else. Like you say, Dykes is
04:15out. I think Tommy Conway might be the man who finally gets a little bit more game time
04:20this time around. Laurence Shankland is one of the players I was alluding to, although
04:25even though he's not banging in the goals, I do think at the moment he's in quite good
04:30form for Hearts in terms of his overall game, but that doesn't scale up to international
04:36level for me. He's not going to be able to play the role he does for Hearts for Scotland
04:41on the international stage. It's just not realistic. What Scotland needs is someone
04:46at the top end to score the goals and Laurence Shankland isn't doing that at the moment.
04:50Then you've got Kevin Nisbett, who is hitting a little bit of form at the right time. Again,
04:57I just feel like it's coming a bit too soon and it's not enough for you to say he should
05:05definitely be in the Scotland squad. I don't think it is. I imagine I wouldn't be totally
05:12against seeing George Hurst in this Scotland squad. The other guy whose name I meant, the
05:20goalkeeper in the MLS, what was his name again? Chris Brady. Chris Brady, that's right, sorry.
05:26On that, just call him up. We need more depth in goals. It's just not even Craig Gordon
05:32as much as he's great and he's still an international quality keeper. I'm not disputing that. He
05:40shouldn't be there for the World Cup qualifiers. I'm not saying he should be retiring at the end
05:46of the season if he doesn't want to because he's still a great player. If he feels like he keeps
05:49going, I just mean in terms of a natural sort of age to think when a player would retire.
05:58There aren't any young goalies out there that we can really turn our attention to
06:02the way there are in the striker position with someone like Kieran Bowie, who even though he isn't
06:08necessarily right now doing enough for you to say he definitely deserves a Scotland call-up,
06:13I think there's a good enough player there that will be a Scotland international.
06:17We don't have that luxury. I don't see any young goalies that I'm thinking, oh,
06:23maybe they're not quite Scotland ready yet, but they might be a Scotland keeper in the future,
06:27so we should call them up. Just get any eligible goalkeeper we can, just get them in the squad
06:32because we need them. Two names I'll drop in, I think, that will be called up in the
06:37future. I think James Penrice at Hearts has been particularly impressive this season, but not,
06:42I think, you're looking further down the line for him. And Ryan Hardy, who's been tremendous
06:48for Plymouth this season, if he can kind of continue his goal-scoring spree, I'd imagine
06:54that he will eventually get rewarded with a future call-up. That's all we have time for
06:59on today's show. Thanks to Martin Simpson to join me on today's podcast and stay tuned for
07:06the next episode of Fitbit Talk.