Interview: Charlie Adam

Left out on that infamous night in Prague, Charlie Adam put his mind to seizing his chance when it came and he’s now the midfield lynchpin carrying Scotland’s hopes against Spain

THERE is a natural temptation, when you think of Charlie Adam, to recall Scotland against Spain, and arrive at the conclusion: “What a difference a year makes.” The midfielder hadn’t started a competitive game for his country when he came off the bench against the world and European champions at Hampden last October to prove the catylast for a stirring comeback from 2-0 down that was only scuppered by the concession of a late goal. Since then he has become Craig Levein’s most valuable player and, with his move to Liverpool from Blackpool, the highest-profile performer in the squad after Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher.

“That Spain game was maybe pivotal in my international career because I played against Sweden [shortly] before that and never had a great game but came on that night and did OK and maybe that changed it,” Adam says of what he accepts was the finest 45 minutes among his 13 appearances for his country. “It was just one of those nights everything clicked. I have a few caps now and just want more.”

The two sides meet again in Alicante on Tuesday in the climax to their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign but the problem in hyping up the transformational nature of Adam’s last brush with Spain is that, by his own admission, he has not made enough difference to the Scotland cause in the past 12 months. “Up and down,” is how he describes his form in the international arena, before conceding, “I’ve not been great. But I’ll let everybody make the decision and the manager will get his opinion on it. If he thinks I’m doing all right, then I’ll play. But everybody has an opinion on how you play, and it’s different. That’s the way it is in football. Performance-wise, I know I can improve for Scotland. I’ll put my hand up and say that but it’s what happens at times. It is difficult to play at international level. But I’m learning and enjoying it and that’s the important thing.”

Levein would be aghast at the suggestion, but Adam’s attacking attributes may not have been given the most natural platform. The player operates in a deep-lying role for Scotland. He is the one between defence and midfield in a set 4-1-4-1 system. “I enjoy that, but the manager’s not said I need to sit and play,” he says. “I can go and join in and get forward. That’s what I want to do. I want to score goals. It is the one thing I want to do when I play. I hope I can get some for Scotland. You never know, if I move forward I can get efforts in and get a couple.”

Avoiding falling out with the manager hasn’t done Adam any harm as he’s become the focal point for what Levein wants to build at international level while, for Steven Fletcher, the last year has also made a difference but in a different way.

When the striker made a £6.5 million move from Burnley to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2010, it was viewed as cash-confirmation the youngster was on a career path that would inevitably see him leading the line for his country. But his criticism of the infamous 4-6-0 formation in Prague and his omission from the side that night led to a breakdown in relations between the Scotland manager and the player, who has since resided in international exile. Fletcher implicated Adam in his grumblings about the game in the Czech Republic which the pair watched from the stand – only days before Adam’s display against Spain at Hampden had the home supporters leaping from their seats.

“It is one of those decisions that was made a long time ago,” Adam says. “These things happen. People say what they say. I’ve experienced disappointments in life. They are not easy to get over. I wouldn’t say I was happy being left out but I got on with it. My thinking was: ‘When’s the next game, let me get in the squad for that’. It wasn’t about spitting the dummy out. At the end up, there are 23, 24 players the manager can pick. It’s the same at Liverpool. I’ve played the last five or six but, when the manager says he’s putting someone else in, you respect that. You go away and work harder to get in the team. It is so short a career you don’t want to ever forget that. And when he get the opportunity to play for your country it is difficult to turn down. I’m just glad I have been able to represent my country as many times as I have.”

Adam’s easily-discarded status at Rangers has clearly hardened him to the possibility of not making any team cut. Thus far, he has avoided the fate at Anfield where, following his £7m summer switch, he has relished life on the biggest stage under the club’s biggest figure, Kenny Dalglish. One of a raft of new summer recruits, he rates results and performances as acceptable but certain to improve. Liverpool are fifth despite being in the throes of an integration process that sees Dalglish’s “new” side having played only ten to 15 games together. Adam is just thrilled to be part of it, with Scotland’s most capped player, with 102 appearances, and most decorated Anfield icon at the helm.

Adam says of Dalglish: “No matter what he does or where he goes he’s the top of the tree at the club. He’s well respected in the game and it’s just a privilege to say he was the one that signed me for Liverpool.”

The midfielder, whose accent, as well as his game, has been smoothed out by his time in England, has only jocular quibbles about life with the legend. “Sometimes even I don’t understand what he says,” Adam says of a man whose Glaswegian is as thick as it was when he left the city in 1977. “Some of the foreign guys are left just looking. Sometimes I interpret, but sometimes he speaks so fast that I can’t. He’s a bundle of laughs and a joy to work for every morning. He’s always out on the training ground. The only problem is that he still wants to play. We don’t like to let him but he still wants to kick the ball around, and does. I’ve never worked for someone like him. Walter Smith is calmer, more relaxed and laid back, but he [Dalglish] is on the go every day and his enthusiasm rubs off on us. He really celebrated the derby win last weekend, he was so happy. It means a lot to him to be back at Liverpool.”

And it says so much for Adam about the difficulty of Scotland’s task in two days’ time that he won’t be facing his Spanish club team-mates, goalkeeper Pepe Reina and defender Jose Enrique, the latter not even in his country’s squad. “For me, Pepe is the best goalie in the Premier League and he can’t even get in the 18 at times. It just shows how good Spain are,” says Adam, of a keeper who is behind Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Barcelona’s Victor Valdes in the national side pecking order. “I’ve been saying to Pepe that I think they will probably win this one, Euro 2012, as well, and he just keeps laughing. If they could win three competitions in a row, it would be phenomenal.” So, then, would a result for Scotland against them this week.