Why the Steven Fletcher Question can only be solved by Steven Fletcher

iN POLITICAL circles, there is a Scottish national separatist issue known as the West Lothian Question. In the separation of a player from his country, Scotland national manager Craig Levein has the Steven Fletcher Question.

The 24-year-old Wolverhampton Wanderers striker is widely regarded as the country’s most exciting frontline talent thanks to his recent form in the English Premier League. The fact he has been left out because of a “stuff you”-style text he sent to Levein only months after he had a pop at the Scotland manager’s tactics and selections appears petty and unnecessary.

Yet, it must be said that family members do not speak for years, whole lifetimes even, because of feuds traceable to unkind words or deeds that, out-of-context, seem utterly trivial. So in the world of human relations the smallest acorn can grow into the mightiest, beastly oak. However, as Levein is more than twice the age of Fletcher, many have said that it is up to him to show he can actually be the bigger man. The theory runs that he should simply wipe the slate clean, contact Fletcher and call a truce... instead of waiting for the forward to re-establish contact and re-affirm his desire to play international football.

The Scotland manager denies that the reason for the impasse is because he doesn’t want to lose face, or doesn’t want to have his authority undermined by buckling to suit one player. Levein is attempting to be fair to all those in his squad. And, in saying that all Fletcher needs to do is tell a third party by text that he wants to play for his country; that the matter would then be closed; that he has had fall-outs with everybody in the past, and that he “hopes” the Wolves forward does want to come back, it appears he is being pretty fair to the exiled performer. And Fletcher’s protestations that he would “look an absolute knob” by taking the straightforward, private course of action to return to the international fold are inscrutable.

“It’s not about who looks bad or who doesn’t look bad. It’s not about saving face,” Levein says. “What it is about is me setting the ground rules as the manager of the team. I don’t go around every player and say ‘Well, how do you want things to work in the Scottish group and I’ll just do what you want?’ What happens is that I make the rules and everybody has to abide by those rules. I think the rules, as players will tell you, mean there are no great restrictions on everybody.

“The reason that it’s a happy group is that everybody enjoys coming along. They get a degree of freedom to do what they want. Everything is catered for to keep them happy because I understand that playing for Scotland has to be a pleasurable experience. That is what I have done; what I have created. What I am not going to do is change because someone is unhappy.”

Fletcher, though, is the only Scottish player to have scored nine goals in his last 14 English Premier League outings, and three in his last six. “And he is the only Scottish player who has scored three goals in his last six games who doesn’t want to play for Scotland,” Levein says. “I mean, I don’t know how much simpler it could be? If he wants to be part of the group, he will be treated like everybody else. Up to this point, the only indication he has given me is that he doesn’t want to be part of it.”

Levein’s mantra is that “the team is far more important than individuals”. “That’s the message that it’s all about,” he says. And he uses the example of Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, who didn’t feature for Spain against Scotland. “Why do you think Spain are so successful? Because it’s the team that’s important. Everybody thinks about the team. That is what I am trying to create here; that if you want to be part of something, you have to give something up and that is you don’t make the decisions. Everyone has to be thinking they want to play for the national team and they want the national team to get better: ‘OK, there might be a situation where I’m not playing, it might be that I get taken off, and OK I am unhappy, but the manager makes the decisions’.

“Nobody will be more pissed off than Fernando Torres just now at Spain, because he’s not getting a game. He’s back in his club side where he’s still not doing particularly well. He gets taken off the other night [against the Czech Republic] but is thinking about the team. He’ll not be sending a text to [Spain manager Vicente] del Bosque saying: ‘Sorry, I don’t want to play for Spain anymore’. Do you see the point I’m trying to make? It’s to get to that situation that everyone understands that the team is the most important thing. There is a respect attached to playing for Spain.”