Indeed. I can't remember a player at Tanndice as exciting to watch as Swanson. Sometimes he is worth the entrance money just for the 3 or 4 wee runs or bits of magic he tends to produce in every match.

Should he have been called up already? Given that Levein already managed him and knows that he has more natural talent than anyone else on the country barring Mcfadden then yes, but with the injuries he has suffered, i am just glad to be getting 90 mins out of him at Tanny, never mind Hampden. He is also a wee hot head who is prone to going down easy. will need to curb his temper if he is ever going to get a game for Scotland.

Agreed, but what I was getting at was that fact that a naturally talented footballer was languishing at Berwick before getting picked up by United.

In other countries a player like Swanson would have been developed earlier by a bigger club and would have been ready for international football by age 20-22. In Scotland we've been too busy producing cloggers who are big, strong and talentless rather than footballers like Danny.

Was it not true that Hibs turned him down for being too small? What he lacks in height, he makes up with trickery and being direct. I'd much rather see a player like this given the opportunity to create than have three central midfielders get in each others way and create pretty much nothing. All we need is to sacrifice one (Robertson being my choice) and play another striker or winger.

Absolutely agreed Arabs4ever.

I think Danny himself would rather play centrally so he is more involved in the play.

If only the manager would take the (not much of a) gamble and play him there.

Levein also said last night that swanson was probably the most gifted player he'd ever worked with (or did i just dream that last night) a season long fit/confident swanson could make quite a differance, maybe houstie will try something new tomorrow at airdrie, hope we can score a good few goals tomorrow give the team a lift.

I also see that he has changed his name from danny to craig...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14974056.stm

Also pretty strange that Levein, who is pretty well known for building teams full of big lads who are first and formost difficult to beat, was the guy that spotted Swanson.

Sadly this was the trend for a long time in world football before Barca/Spain. Even Brazil have been very much concentrating on having big physical lads in the team in order to compete with the Europeans. It is probably little conincidence they have had a real derth of midfield talent compared to what they used to produce. That clamper at Arsenal was the mainstain of their midfield for about 10 years...(Gilberto)

Barca/Spain are the best thing to happen to world football since the Dutch team of 74.

I feel as usual for our players, this will be little more than a token gesture i.e. maybe a couple of friendly appearances.

Sadly, it will not be until he gets his move to a more appropriate team that he will be included regularly within the squad, maybe even the team.

for more information see - Barry Robson

Your spot on there arabogs, robson was brilliant when he was at united but am i right in thinking he never got a sniff till he went to celtic. Anyone would think they are trying to encourage good players away from us diddy teams

WestCoast, I think as I mentioned, Robson got the token friendly appearances and maybe called up to the squad, but never played. It was not until he became good enough to play at international level by joining Celtic, that he got some real caps.

He was not the first and certainly will not be the last for this scenario to play out.

Lets face it, many an on form SPL player, not just United's lads never get a fair crack at Scotland, as every Scotland manager cannot see beyond the end of his nose or they are scared to see beyond the end of their nose, as the old firm supporting media will make sure they are crucified for selecting someone they perceive as not worthy to be in the team ahead of one of their boys in blue or green.

I hope I am wrong, as I would love Swanny to get a decent run at the Scotland team, but I just cannot see it, whilst he is with us.