A good time for Charlie Mulgrew

WHEN Charlie Mulgrew made the home debut of his second Celtic stint against Braga in August 2010, it wasn’t merely inconceivable that 20 months on Neil Lennon’s first signing would merit a Scotland call-up. It was unimaginable that by then he would still be a Celtic player.

As his team exited from the Champions League qualifiers, Mulgrew looked out of place at left-back and in the Celtic shirt he had not donned in a competitive outing in his teenage years at the club. The crowd that night did nothing to assuage his unease, with his increasingly faltering touches bringing grumbles and jeers. “Yeah, and I was at the Hearts game a couple of weeks ago and they were singing his name,” says Scotland manager Craig Levein, who has selected the player for Wednesday’s friendly in Slovenia. “I love that. It is fantastic for somebody to change people’s minds. He wasn’t a glamourous signing as such but he has certainly endeared himself to the Celtic supporters and he deserves his opportunity with us.”

Mulgrew comes firmly into the category of late-developers-who-have-learned-at-football’s-school-of-hard-knocks so beloved of the national manager. A disciplinary issue with Celtic manager Gordon Strachan on a pre-season tour of Switzerland marked the beginning of the end for the defender at Celtic first time round. Initially packed off on loan to Dundee United, he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2006 for an unproductive spell. He had a temporary stint with Southend before rebuilding his career at Aberdeen following a move there in 2008. In a number of games against Celtic thereafter, his excellent deadball delivery caused all sorts of problems. Whenever that was put to Strachan his withering reponse would be: “Yeah, and he had excellent deadball delivery at Dundee United, Wolves and Southend too.”

“Mulgrew is in the squad now because he has got better, and the Celtic coaching staff deserve great credit for that,” says Levein. “He has had his disappointments, but come through. I am a huge fan of players who improve later in life. Sometimes I think the penny drops. They start to concentrate on their football and it is evident on the pitch that Charlie is really at the top of his game just now. He will be 26 next month, and that is a great age. He would have been in the group in Cyprus [in November], had he been fit. It is more than overdue. I am pleased for him, he deserves it.”

Mulgrew’s versatility plays well for Levein. Far more at home at centre-back than anywhere else nowadays, he has dotted between that role and left-back in recent months for his club without any glitches. In both slots at national level, he might be second or third replacement. Gary Caldwell and Christophe Berra are Scotland’s first choice centre-back pairing, while Grant Hanley might soon threaten that orthodoxy in making good on the regular game time the 20-year-old has been commanding at Blackburn Rovers.

“I have seen a lot of him [Hanley] recently and for me I am absolutely certain that he is going to be a starter for me in the near future,” Levein says. “He has come on a ton, he really has, he has been out of the team, and in the team, and plays with a great maturity. It is not easy to play in that Premiership at his age, and I have been mightily impressed by him. He is very close to my thoughts, if not for this game, but soon for the starting positions. I was at the game when he scored the winner at Old Trafford [in December]. For a young kid he plays with a lot of maturity and playing in that Premiership you come up against top players every week.”

Levein has commandeered James Forrest but left Jordan Rhodes with the under-21s for their crucial qualifier at home to Holland. Both youngsters were instrumental in the win for Billy Stark’s men over the Dutch in November but the Scotland manager sees them at a different juncture of their international development.

“The way I look at it there is a chance that James could start in our first World Cup qualifier in September [at home to Serbia], so I want to give him game time to get him used to being involved in the group. Jordan is on the fringes and we would have taken him this time if there hadn’t been the 21s game but Kenny Miller is the number one choice for me and, all being well, will start the game in Slovenia.”

The build-up to the World Cup campaign starts in earnest with the midweek encounter. Slovenia have been selected precisely because, as a Balkan nation, they will give Levein’s players a feel for what could be ahead when travelling to that part of the world for the qualifiers against Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia. And with a FIFA ranking of 27, 21 places above Scotland, the degree of difficulty they will pose could be considered broadly in line with Croatia, currently ninth in the pecking order, and Serbia, the 25th-placed side who finished above Slovenia, but only third behind Italy and Estonia in the qualifying campaign for this summer’s European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Slovenia’s Euro 2012 disappointment, on the back of the nation of only two million reaching the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa, resulted in a change of coach, with Slavisa Stojanovic replacing Matjaz Kek in October. This will only be his second home game, but the draw of Scotland is perhaps revealed by the fact the game will not be staged in the capital Ljubiana, or Maribor, but in the 4,000-capacity Bonifika Stadium in the coastal port of Koper.

“After going to Cyprus I wanted another away match, I wanted a really tough match and this is a tough game,” said Levein. “There is no pointing in continually picking fixtures that you think you can win. The important thing is that we experience difficulties on the road and this is what this game is about.

“Slovenia are where we would like to be. They have made great strides. For the size of the country, to be involved in the World Cup was just amazing. This is a tough test for us.”

And it is one Scotland must show they can handle if they are to convince of their World Cup credentials.