Credit where credit is due; isn’t that what they say? It’s
been a long time coming, but Craig Levein has finally seen sense and included
Kirkintilloch’s answer to Shunsuke Nakamura in the Scotland squad. OK, so it’s
a friendly in Slovenia, and he may not even get off the bench, but it’s a
start.
Since the derby game at Ibrox in January 2011, he has barely
put a foot wrong, whether playing left-back, centre-half or left-midfield.
Unfortunately, when he does put a foot wrong, you notice, but, thankfully, his
defensive misdemeanours have been few and far between. Almost always my
candidate for Man of the Match, he has displayed levels of consistency and
commitment no one ever expected from a man they all thought would be a mere
squad player, but Neil Lennon’s first signing as Celtic manager, having
struggled with injury in the first part of season 2010-11, appears to have made
himself indispensable to his boss and to the team.
In these days of (now cheap) foreign imports, it’s pleasing
to see a player come through the club’s youth system and make it into the first
team. However, this particular player has had to take a rather circuitous
route, after being discarded by Gordon Strachan. This may or may not have been
a good managerial decision but it has certainly done the player the world of
good: mature, professional, hard-working and determined are just some of the
many terms that can be used to describe him now, and he has, on a number of
occasions this season, been trusted with the captain’s armband and taken to the
task admirably. It’s been a dramatic turnaround and this latest accolade is
richly deserved. If he makes it on to the field next Wednesday, I’m sure I
won’t be the only one applauding the rise and rise of Charlie Mulgrew.
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