ST JOHNSTONE coach Steven MacLean is delighted to see midfielder Ali McCann gaining recognition after another excellent season for the Perth club – even his performances mean he is also gaining admiring glances from elsewhere.
The 21-year-old’s displays were rewarded with a debut for Northern Ireland in November and McCann has went on to make another four appearances for his country, grabbing his first goal with a classy finish to make it 3-0 against Malta at the end of May.
McCann’s rise has come as no surprise to MacLean. And the Saints fans’ favourite reckons the best is still to come from the central midfielder.
“He is a top player and it was great to see him on the scoresheet for Northern Ireland,” MacLean said. “He has had a fantastic season. When you watch him he just seems to do everything well.
“Hopefully he continues growing and keeps improving. I’m sure he will. He’s a great kid and deserves everything he gets.
“The ground he covers in games is fantastic. He is a top player and he has proved that. He’s been a huge part of our most successful season and hopefully there is more to come.”
READ MORE: Incoming Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou signs off from current club with nightmare loss
McCann played a crucial role in the heart of Callum Davidson’s team as the rookie manager steered Saints to an unlikely Scottish and League Cup double.
Those performances have not went unnoticed, though, with Celtic keeping tabs on the Edinburgh-born midfielder. MacLean hopes that McCann remains at McDiarmid Park for the foreseeable – but accepts that when you play as well as McCann has, it’s only a matter of time before clubs start queuing up with their chequebooks open.
“It will be hard to keep him,” he conceded. “I think if someone was to come in, the chairman and Callum have said that they will need to pay a big fee.
“They will come in if he keeps performing and teams will be coming to watch him.
“He will get everything he deserves as long as he keeps working hard. He will just get better and better.
“If someone comes in to take him we will just have to move on. He will deserve it if he does get his move.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here