Crisis in the SPL is a price worth paying if Scotland can reach major finals, says Adam

ASKED to consider the current plight of Scottish domestic football, Charlie Adam would be more than entitled to a wry smile. The SPL, after all, was the environment in which he was not deemed good enough to hold down a regular first team place for Rangers.

Tomorrow at Hampden, he will take the field with a well earned reputation as one of the most potent players in the English Premier League, already emerging as a pivotal figure in Kenny Dalglish’s resurgent Liverpool side.

Adam is at the vanguard of a growing contingent of Scots plying their trade in the English top flight, a development regarded as crucial to Scotland’s international prospects by head coach Craig Levein.

So, while Adam is saddened by the increasingly battered image of football in his homeland following last week’s mass exit from European club competitions by Scottish clubs, he believes domestic decline may be a price worth paying if it comes in tandem with the national team ending the long wait to qualify for a major tournament finals.

“I know Scottish football is suffering right now,” said Adam. “Rangers and Celtic both lost very early in Europe, which is difficult to accept, but that’s the world we live in. The SPL is going to suffer if our best players are not in it, but I believe you should want your best players playing in the best league there is. For me, that is the English Premier League. It’s the best in the world.

“If you are good enough to be playing in it, then you should be there. People should be proud of the players who have managed to get moves to the best league in the world. Not long ago, you would have been lucky if there were two or three Scots playing at that level, but now there are 14 or 15 of us. It shows the quality that Scottish football is bringing through.

“It may not be good for the Scottish game but the Scotland manager has to be selfish and want his best players playing in England. We are fortunate to have so many in the Premier League and the Championship. It can only bode well for the national team. The important thing is that the national team reaches its peak and we are heading that way at the moment.”

Adam accepts that the onus on Scotland to take three points from the Czech Republic tomorrow and retain hope of reaching the Euro 2012 finals has intensified as a result of last week’s Europa League wipeout.

“We feel the extra burden to win on Saturday,” added the 25-year-old. “As a nation, everyone wants to qualify for a major competition. There has been a lot of negativity recently but the national team are going in the right direction. It is looking good. But the important thing is to win the game on Saturday, it’s as plain as that.

“Playing at a major tournament is something I’m missing from the CV. Everyone wants to do it. It’s been a long time for Scotland and everyone in our squad would like the opportunity. There shouldn’t be extra pressure but we’ll just try to play the way we can and hopefully we’ll get the right result.”

If Scottish football has been in the doldrums at the start of this season, Adam could hardly be on more of a high. He has hit the ground running as a Liverpool player, following his £9 million summer move from Blackpool, and scored his first goal for the club in front of the Anfield Kop in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Bolton. It seems vindication for Adam now comes on an almost weekly basis, making his troubled days at Ibrox an ever more distant memory.

“When I left Rangers, I always believed I could get to this level and play for a top Premier League club,” he reflects. “I had a manager at Blackpool in Ian Holloway who believed it and that helped. I was also surrounded by good players and I had a bit of luck. I now have a manager in Kenny Dalglish who has shown a lot of faith in me. The deal didn’t happen in January when Liverpool first tried to sign me but he came back in for me during the summer. I’ve been given a great opportunity to play for Liverpool and I’m enjoying it.

“I had a desire to prove people wrong after leaving Rangers. You are always going to have doubters but you want to prove the critics wrong. Thankfully I’ve done that but I’ll never take anything for granted because I know how easy it is to fall back out of the picture.

“Going to Blackpool could have gone either way. I could still be sitting there and could have been for five years, playing every week. People thought Blackpool was a step back but I thought it was a step forward because I would be playing every week and I could show everyone what I was capable of. I did that and now I’m at Liverpool I want to kick on again.

“Liverpool are one of the biggest clubs in the world but the step-up has been easy for me because of the manager and the players around me. It also helps me that, ever since I was 14 or 15 at Rangers, I knew what it was like to be expected to win every game. So I know what that intensity is like and I believe I can handle it.”