Harvey Barnes and Scotland relationship ‘like an American sitcom’

A little extra fire power for Steve Clarke’s profligate Scots? I see you sit up…

Harvey Barnes is the name doing the rounds… again.

Yep, we’ve been here before.

Barnes qualifies to play for Scotland through his grandparents, but has been capped once by England – in a 2020 friendly versus Wales – though he was rumoured to be a potential call-up for this summer’s Euros.

Of course, that didn’t happen, though the hen in the squad announcement video is still on some of our minds.

So too is Barnes recent comments. Speaking to The Athletic, Barnes admitted “there’s been one or two conversations” regarding the switch of allegiance.

Ryan Cryle, joint sports editor of the Press and Journal and Evening Express, told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast that Barnes’ indecision is a “turn off.”

“He’s probably thinking ‘I could still get called up for England’ so you don’t want to commit yourself too much. But at the same time, that lack of ‘I really want to play for Scotland, call me up Steve Clarke’ is a little bit of a turn off for me.

“It feels like in those American sitcoms… if we get to 30 and we’re not married, we can marry each other because we haven’t found anyone else. It’s a little bit like that.

“But Harvey Barnes has got 40 Premier League goals, and if we’ve seen anything from Scotland over the last few years, it’s that up-front we need more goals in the team. We need players that are capable of scoring regularly.

“There’s two sides to it for me. I’m not quite sure, because you want players to be desperate to pull on the international shirt and represent their country.”

Some are less conflicted by the situation, however.

And former Scotland international Cammy Bell is one of them.

He’s eager to bring in the Newcastle United attacker as soon as possible.

“Any £40m player, bring them to Scotland, get them in the squad,” he gushed.

“I just think he would bring so much to the Scotland squad, something we’ve not got. He’s a goalscorer, with a huge amount of assists as well, at the top level of football.

“Bring me a £40m player and put him in the Scotland squad, no problem.”

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