JAMES McFadden has accused former Scotland manager Craig Levein of currying favour with the Tartan Army by publicly talking up his concern for the national team's former poster boy while he recuperated from a cruciate ligament injury but then shunning him in private.
McFadden, who returned to his first club Motherwell this week, had an infamous falling-out with the national team coach following the last-gasp 2-1 victory against minnows Liechtenstein at Hampden Park in September 2010, which saw him win the last of his 48 caps.
He ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee little more than a week later while training with Birmingham City, and for all that Levein – whose own playing days were dogged by similar knee injuries – claimed he would reach out to the player in his time of need, the call never came.
"It was hugely frustrating that the injury came soon after that game against Liechtenstein," said McFadden. "I left Hampden and nobody [from the management team] said anything to me. Then when I got my injury nobody said anything to me then either.
"That was disappointing for me. You'd think if one of your players – and it doesn't matter if you like them or not – gets a serious injury then you'd like to find out how they are. The most disappointing thing for me was he was in the papers saying 'if anyone knows how he feels, it's me – I'll be in touch with him' and he never was. It showed a lot of stuff was done for the Press and it was disappointing."
McFadden feels Levein made him a scapegoat for the Liechtenstein game, but it didn't take long for his then Birmingham boss Alex McLeish to put a smile back on his face. McFadden remembers only too well the pep talk he received from McLeish ahead of his very next match after Liechtenstein, a league game against Liverpool.
"I wasn't partly blamed – I was blamed for the performance," said McFadden. "There wasn't one good performance that night – maybe James Morrison when he came on – but I seemed to get picked out. At half-time he [Levein] could have swapped 11 players if he'd wanted to. Big Eck called me into his office after I got back from Hampden, and he was like, 'I'm not playing you off the left today'. I felt terrible, and just thought 'I can't get any lower'.
"But then he said 'I'm playing you up front instead'. He told me to 'go and play the way I know you can'. It gave me a real lift, and it showed you just what kind of guy he was. He knew me and he knew how to get the best out of me. It shook the Scotland thing out of my system and I was ready for the next game. It was a good feeling because Liverpool are a massive club and I played well."
After a cameo against Dundee United in midweek, and the visit north yesterday to take on Ross County, McFadden's next match brings him into close contact with Celtic, his boyhood heroes who he could have joined as recently as last summer had Neil Lennon's attempt to sign him on a Bosman after his exit from Birmingham paid off.
McFadden has a goal and a win against the Parkhead club under the lights at Fir Park on his CV from 2002, but knows victories against the Parkhead side are a rare commodity. Although his focus is just on getting a run of games together at Motherwell, he is also well aware that good performances from now until the summer could yet rekindle an interest from the East End of Glasgow.
"He [Lennon] said it was to do with money, but that wasn't it from my side," said McFadden. "I don't really want to go into it because I have spoken to him [Lennon] a few times and I like him, it is just not exactly the way it was.
"It is a case of what might have been, but last year when I went to Everton I knew that I could go back there and get fit in my own time and play when I was needed and ready. As it happened I got a few injuries and struggled a bit last year. If I had gone to Celtic last I wouldn't have done myself justice and it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.
"It still might happen, but I need to get fit and play well, and do the business for Motherwell and that is the most important thing for me at the minute. My contract is up at the end of the season, I am only here short term, so I need to impress people."
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