Scotland’s hero of Paris slips into the wilderness

It’s the cruellest cut, perhaps. Already burdened by the knowledge that he must resurrect a once-shimmering career, the extent of James McFadden’s fall has been highlighted by an approach from Aberdeen.

At least, that’s the view of the comedians among Scottish football supporters – or the non- Aberdeen following ones anyway. There is, though, a more serious element to this story – or non-story, according to Craig Brown, the Pittodrie manager – to be addressed. If not Aberdeen, then, as we approach the fourth anniversary of his famous goal in Paris, where next for McFadden?

Brown has strenuously fought off accusations that the enquiry was a publicity stunt by the Pittodrie club. Aberdeen did speak to the player, just not at the 11th hour of the transfer window, as reports yesterday suggested. Brown immediately sensed McFadden’s preference to remain in England, where he has played since joining Everton from Motherwell in 2003.

Yet the brutal fact of the matter is that Brown surely had every right to believe he had a chance to convince McFadden, who is now out of contract at Birmingham City but is still training with the club, to come to Pittodrie, and help his side climb away from the bottom of the table.

Four years is a long time in football, and McFadden would be the first to admit that he can’t live off a winning goal against France in the Parc des Princes – and one against the Netherlands seven years ago – for ever. Indeed, the anniversary of his winner against France, as if anyone needs reminding, was four years ago later this month, and yet it must feel like a lifetime ago for McFadden.

Managers tend to be more unemotional when assessing the worth of a potential recruit. Unfortunately for McFadden, rather than dwell on his central role in Scotland’s famous victory in Paris, they will have to give more value to his more recent outings for Birmingham and Scotland, and also factor in the year-long lay-off as he recovered from serious injury.

The one-time darling of the Tartan Army had to endure a wretched humiliation on his last of, to date, 48 international appearances for Scotland, when hauled off at half-time against Liechtenstein. He hadn’t followed manager Craig Levein’s instructions, and was already considered to be living on borrowed time after an equally underwhelming contribution from the substitutes’ bench against Lithuania in the previous match.

Upsetting a popular Scotland player was something Levein was prepared to risk since his own job was on the line that night as Scotland struggled to overcome one of the most lowly of European football nations. Even prior to kick-off Levein had expressed some serious reservations about McFadden. Indeed, there’s no reason to be confident that, even had he remained injury-free in the last 12 months, the man once reckoned to be Scotland’s big-game player would be lining up against Czech Republic tomorrow at Hampden Park.

“The question is not if he will play against Liechtenstein – the question is if he will play against Spain when they come to Hampden next month?” Levein asked, pointedly, last September. In the event, the question proved redundant. Just days after being withdrawn at half-time against Liechtenstein at Hampden McFadden suffered cruciate ligament damage to his left knee. He hasn’t played since, hence the anxiety of those who loved nothing more than see the McFadden of old bearing down on defenders.

Included in this number is Pat Nevin, another naturally gifted Scottish footballer and who, on Radio 5 Live this week, presented a programme investigating the dearth of home-produced “Number 10s” in the British game. Not that McFadden is someone who one would immediately think of as a typical No 10, but he has many of the attributes required, such as vision, skill and creativity. Nevin, who watched McFadden develop from a raw teenager at Motherwell, now hopes he has the intelligence required to make the most of these other talents.

“In Faddy’s last game, or last couple of games for Scotland, he was running around like a lunatic, trying too hard,” said Nevin yesterday. “And then ran himself into the ground.”

As well as being no help to himself, McFadden was proving no help to his team-mates. This was one of Levein’s greatest concerns about selecting the player. In addition to disrupting his carefully-considered tactics, McFadden’s presence would impact on his team-mates, often in a detrimental sense.

“That’s the difficulty,” agreed Nevin. “He can do it on the ball but there’s something bigger, which is doing it for the other people around him,” added Nevin, who still believes McFadden has the ability to kick-start his career.

“There’s absolutely no reason why he can’t,” he added. “Later in my career, when I got injuries, I’d sit back and have a look at things from a different perspective, and it’s not a bad thing to re-evaluate what your contribution should be.

“There’s every chance that he’s sought out advice and that he might be less inclined to go down blind alleys.

“He’s had a brilliant, brilliant career,” added Nevin. “But perhaps you’d still say he hasn’t yet maximised his potential.”

If McFadden isn’t inclined to do this at Pittodrie, then where?