Congratulations to Jason Cummings on his call-up for Australia.
It does feel a bit strange that someone who has been capped twice for Scotland can switch allegiance mid-career but he isn’t the first and won’t be the last to take advantage of the friendlies rule.
I don’t think he would have been on Steve Clarke’s radar any more so it’s not as if he’s turned his back on our country.
This is a chance of a lifetime to go to a World Cup and nobody would expect him to say ‘thanks but no thanks’.
Let’s face it, Jason has reinvented himself Down Under.
It’s a great story.
He’s scoring goals for fun in the A League and, by all accounts, is loving the lifestyle as well.
“Felt the Jose Mourinho vibe” 🗣🎙😅
Take a look behind the scenes with Garang Kuol & Jason Cummings as our Socceroos squad for September was revealed! #AUSvNZL #GiveIt100 #GoSocceroos pic.twitter.com/zzi8nG8U2R
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) September 14, 2022
From the day he broke through at Hibs you could see here was a really talented striker.
It didn’t work out for him in England but there were flashes of the player we remembered when he scored against Liverpool for Shrewsbury in the FA Cup.
Dundee fans will probably be thinking ‘why didn’t it work out at Dens?’
You wouldn’t say it was a total disaster, by any means.
Jason scored in four games in a row not long after arriving and he was joint top scorer even though he signed midway through the season.
But he was in and out of the team towards the end of the promotion campaign and an unused sub in the two play-off games against Kilmarnock.
Then he didn’t score many in the Premiership and was allowed to leave, along with Leigh Griffiths.
If ever there was a ‘two plus two equals four’ signing, Jason and Dundee felt like one to me at the time.
But sometimes it’s impossible to put your finger on the reason it ends up being ‘two plus two equals five’.
Confidence, style of football, injuries at the wrong time and loads of other factors come into play.
And the fall-out with James McPake at the end didn’t reflect well on him.
Of course, it’s ironic that at a time Dundee are looking for new strikers, one they let leave is in the form of his life and might be going to a World Cup in a couple of months.
But sometimes you just have to say ‘that’s football’.
Dundee aren’t the only ones needing a striker.
We’re working hard to bring one in at Gayfield.
Hopefully the gaffer has got Billy Reid in his contacts book and we can get a 20-goal-a-season man up from Chelsea!
Joking aside, with the way in which Anton Dowds, Joel Nouble and Jack Hamilton have enhanced their careers, the club should sell itself.
Like other lower league sides in Scotland, we’re finding out that the loan and free market is a hard one.
But I’m sure the gaffer will end up getting the right player in.
It’s no shock that Ange Postecoglou has been linked with the Brighton job.
But I don’t think Celtic fans have to worry about him taking a leaf out of Brendan Rodgers’ book.
My old team are just starting their Champions League group stage and they look like they are just going to get better and better in the league.
Ange will know when it feels like a natural end to a chapter but this isn’t it.
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