Levein

By Graham Barnstaple
November 7 2011

With a massive number of call offs for the training camp trip to Cyprus, if there any point to the friendly on Friday.

The list of call offs reads; Charlie Adam, Graham Dorrans, Alan Hutton, David Marshall, Russell Martin and Lee Wallace and there is a major doubt surroundingLeedswinger Robert Snodgrass with a leg injury.

This has seen Boss Craig Levein has called up some interesting names, there are expected call ups for Stephen Crainey and Craig Conway. But there are shock call ups for Hearts Ryan Stevenson, MK Dons Gary McKenzie (who??) and St. Mirren keeper Craig Sansom.

Unbelievably there is STILL no call up for Ross McCormack ofLeedswho has been scoring goals on a regular basis in the Championship, surely he should be picked in front of Stevenson??

It would also appear Levein and his scouting staff would also prefer to look at players in the third tier of the English game rather than consider anyone from the top division up inScotland.

Is the standard in League 1 any better than the SPL, not from what I have seen on TV, even the Championship isn’t what it is cracked up to be based upon the Middlesbrough v Watford game on Sky on Saturday.

I would rather see someone promoted from the Under 21s than pick the likes of McKenzie from the lower reaches of English football.

I am getting a bit fed up with Levein’s selection policy, he ostracised McFadden and won’t speak to Steven Fletcher and continually overlooks in form players in the SPL.

If we lose this friendly how much of an impact will it have on our world rankings, this could be a major hindrance rather than a help.