PFA Scotland Player of the Year: Unlikely names stand out

IN an already strange season for Scottish football perhaps we should not have been surprised to see Charlie Mulgrew and Jon Daly introduced as PFA Player of the Year nominees yesterday.

After all, no-one expected Kilmarnock to win the first major honour of the campaign, and few could have imagined that Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian would finally re-stage their Scottish Cup final meeting of 1896. And then there is the remarkable fall of Rangers to consider.

Steven Davis and Dean Shiels complete the four-strong list of nominees, but it is Daly and Mulgrew who, as well as sharing the tag of favourites to win the award, must also be considered unlikely names to be competing for the right to call themselves the players’ player of the year. They have similar back stories, since both have come back after being written off. Mulgrew was considered to have wasted his first chance at Celtic, from where he left to join Aberdeen after loan spells at Wolves and then, most inauspiciously of all, at Southend United.

Daly also spent a spell scuffing around the less glamorous corners of English league football with Stockport County, before finding some salvation at Hartlepool United of all places. A move to Dundee United was his reward for re-finding his goalscoring form, but even at Tannadice he has had to reach deep into his reserves of fortitude following a series of injury setbacks. Few have had to earn their spurs quite like this pair, with Mulgrew’s nomination also provided with an element of poignancy. His father, also Charles, passed away at the end of last year, and yet Mulgrew has maintained his sparkling form at both left-back and centre-half for Celtic. “My dad played a huge part,” he said. “My mum as well, and basically my whole family. Whenever I speak to them, they are always positive, but the person who played the biggest part of all was my dad.”

There have probably been better footballers nominated, but have there been more resourceful ones? And this goes, too, for Shiels, whose improvement has come despite the handicap of having lost an eye. Meanwhile, Davis’ form has been maintained amid much uncertainty at Rangers, where he has had to take a considerable pay cut.

Mulgrew is understandably cautious about interpreting the nomination as proof of having arrived. He has worked hard to get where he is. He knows he now needs to work hard to remain where he is, never mind improve on his lot. A first cap for Scotland, earned in February in Slovenia, suggests there is more to come for the player with the valuable left foot. “I just want to keep doing well for Celtic,” he said. “Hopefully we can be in the Champions League next year.”

Mulgrew has benefited from his versatility, but it was at left-back where his most swashbuckling performance was posted, in the title-winning game at Kilmarnock. He scored two goals that day from a position which Emilio Izaguirre made his own last season, before ending up as PFA Player of the Year himself. Left-back has proved a profitable beat at Celtic of late, although Mulgrew has still been left with a slightly frustrated feeling. “You always think of what could have been regarding the treble,” he admitted, following defeats in both the League Cup final and then, last weekend, at the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup. “But you have to look back at the start of the season and we would have taken the league above everything else.”

Dundee United’s campaign could yet end with the sealing of a Champions League qualifying place, and that would mark an incredible leap in fortunes for Daly, who has helped his side to get within reach of such a goal with his contribution of 18 goals. “Obviously it is hard when you are down there in the lower leagues in England trying to make your way,” he said. “I was delighted to come up to United for a change of scenery.” He has been re-invigorated by the move to Scotland, and though he doesn’t imagine Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni is keeping tabs on him from Dublin, he is content to remain where he is.

“I kind of lost my way when I was at Stockport and that was at the age when I needed to push on,” he added. “Perhaps I should have tried to get a move beforehand because I was not enjoying my football there.

“When I went to Hartlepool, I enjoyed it again, scored a few goals and have loved it up here also.”

Daly admitted that he endured a difficult time between the ages of 19 and 22.

The same could be said of Mulgrew, who left Celtic after being unable to force his way into the first team.

Spells in England did not lead to anything there and so Mulgrew determined to get his career back on track with Aberdeen, with impressive results. One stand-out performance for the Pittodrie club at Kilmarnock impressed the watching Neil Lennon, and he became one of the few players to be handed another chance with one of the Old Firm clubs.

He has grasped it with both hands. “I believed I would get back to this level, but I didn’t think I would get back to Celtic,” he acknowledged yesterday.