As we approach the end of season, with all but Cup Finals to be played, we football fans often cast a forlorn figure. Like that part in Fever Pitch's first chapter, and then again in the movie, where the protagonist is trying to explain how bored he is during the Summer.
Chandler, at Saltcoats Caravan Park... probably.
Over this period, we go on holiday, do a spot of gardening, weed the driveway, and paint that bit we have been looking at for months. We might get out of the house and go for "walks", climb "mountains", see "scenery", or even learn to think another way… maybe. That is until the transfer rumours start, the new kits are launched, then the fixtures come, preseason friendlies, and before you know it, August is here and the League Table has never been more equal.
There is, however, some relief for the discerning football fan found in the international June fixtures.
Colin and Davie were there next to me, in a half-full Hampden, when newly crowned European Champion, Andy Robertson, rifled one in against Cyprus, and when Oli Burke won it in the last minute—Steve Clarke's first game. Now, three years, two promotions, one qualification and two playoffs later, Scotland prepare for the sternest test yet; against a desperate Martin Ødegaard, Erling Braut Haaland and Co., away from home.
The common consensus is that Scotland might have a bit more across the board, but I remember Ireland in Dublin when the pre-match chat was all too similar, and the Boys in Green didn't have the world's best striker on the end of a record-breaking season. Make no mistake, this is a quality-laden Norwegian team, and if Clarke's Tartan Army are to take anything from Oslo, they must be at their very best.
Napoli's Leo Østigård will play at the back, next to Brentford's Kristoffer Ajer, and most likely, alongside players from Vålerenga and Bodø/Glimt, the latter of whom comfortably dispatched an all-conquering Celtic last year.
Roma's Ola Solbakken takes his place on the wing, fresh from the Europa League Final, probably on the opposite side of the pitch from another ex-Celt, Mohamed Elyounoussi.
There are yet more players from the Bundesliga and La Liga who we haven't mentioned.
The point is, we have top-level players, sure, but Jeezy peeps man… so do they.
Gee, thanks, Andy, I feel so much better… thought A\M was about positivity! Inject me!
The reason for pointing this out is intentional. The chief tenet of A\M, Growth Mindset, asserts that obstacles and difficulties are to be acknowledged, head-on. In fact, when we encounter difficulty, it is only then that we really learn something, and clamber out on the other side, with our prize intact. No one enjoys this, but our brain works harder when it is challenged. Experience meets 'not yet', repeatedly, until we 'get it'. This is the way.
And this... This is why I trust Steve Clarke and this 'safe' group of players. They have faced every challenge, head-on. They have named their obstacles, and more importantly, the goals beyond them, ever since he took over.
In this pre-match piece, I'll leave the tactics and squad selection to someone else. Instead, let's focus on the thing that brought us this far. The mind of the collective, and by focusing on one of these players, these humans, you'll hopefully be similarly buoyed.
Familiar. Trusted. Picks itself.
This isn't a boring squad.
This is a squad who have achieved unbelievable results, and, justifiably, sit atop their qualification group with maximum points and no goals conceded.
This is a squad where "no matter who comes in, they know exactly what is expected of them", if you're wondering who said that, it was Steve Clarke, right after his side notched a winning run of three games, and the media began to first take notice that something might be happening.
Our progress as a nation can be charted in following the players constituting the whole. My good pal, Gordon Sheach, from the Tartan Scarf, often brings this up whenever we do the Hampden Roar podcast together - the journey of our individual players.
You can pick almost at random, from Robertson's incredible rise through the divisions to Jack Hendry and John Souttar having to overcome far more than any young footballer should have to. I recommend John Walker's (ScotsAbroad Pod) interview with Hendry at this point - a terrifically candid interview.
Instead, we'll focus on a player we all think we know, but recent revelations have let us see behind the veneer of the 'pro footballer'. In this, we might have remembered something very important; that footballers are human. They think, move and feel, just like us.
Billy Gilmour has had to contend with repeated setbacks and a season of online abuse, before then a move, loneliness and a person literally convicted of stalking him, with all that entails. He's 21.
Perhaps you recall being 21? Perhaps you are right now, or have the joy of being younger still.
At 21, you're still a kid.
I don't mean that in a patronising sense, I mean it sincerely, 21 is two years out from being a teenager.
You are not meant to know everything. You are not meant to be the finished article, at anything, let alone professional football.
Gilmour is a kid. A kid in a strange city who was cradling incredibly stressful and serious issues, on his own. Isolation, lack of sleep, anxiety, loneliness, online hate and someone personally determined to bring you down.
Can you imagine being him in this instance? Having 'lots of money' or all the other benefits of top-level football doesn't fix these problems.
You need to rely on something more than that.
Gilmour's incredible end to the season on the pitch for everyone's favourite second team, Brighton, coincided with the court case being made public, and his accuser sentenced, with court records revealing quotes detailing exactly how it affected him (above), and subsequently, his performance at work.
Was Roberto De Zerbi aware of this? Almost certainly. Was it therefore good management to keep Gilmour from the starting lineup until now? As a small business manager, I can tell you that my employees' health and happiness are front and centre of my concerns. I am very much aware of them in every request I make, every job done, and every plan for the future.
It's almost as if, as humans, our health, happiness and contentment are inextricably bound to our ability to perform well in our jobs, in our families, as a friend, a parent, a partner or a spouse.
Against Newcastle, Gilmour notched an assist that made an entire stadium gasp.
Immediately, I thought of the game recommended on 'The Totally Show' by a contributor I can't quite remember, possibly Michael Cox, who challenged us to watch a video of Michael Laudrup, before then trying to guess where he is going to play each pass.
Gilmour's pass right through the middle of the lines, on the grass, perfectly weighted, was the way football should be played. It was beautiful.
Beautiful things are made beautiful by people.
Sometimes the most beautiful are made by those working through the hardest times. This is true of all art. From Fleetwood Mac's, 'Rumours', one of the greatest albums of all time, to Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, a print of which hangs proudly in the middle of our home, reminding us of the journey behind the beauty.
Newcastle were just the latest club to be on the receiving end of Gilmour's late-season artistry.
Against Manchester United, the young Scot made Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro appear invisible. That isn't hyperbole, Brighton absolutely battered Ten Hag's lauded 3rd placed finishers.
This time, he didn't do anything like the through ball but was metronomic in his ball retention. Exactly what Frank Lampard said when he asked why he gave a young Gilmour the chance to 'burst onto the scene'. In fact, although it has become Micah Richards' phrase, it is worth remembering that they were talking about Gilmour, again.
Then there was the Wolves game, the first of his renaissance.
"Gilmour was the best player on the pitch." De Zerbi opined after his side had scored six. And he wasn't wrong. It was the day that everyone remembered just how special this little player is. It was the day that all of Scottish football twitter rejoiced. Oor Billy.
I'll end with this...
Against Norway, he will be but one of a squad of players who are united. They are John McGinn overcoming injury at St. Mirren as a youngster, Angus Gunn, shutting out Spain, and the naysayers, before his family under the spotlight, Lyndon Dykes, overcoming serious health issues to meet up with the Scotland squad he so loves and notching a beautiful assist after tirelessly working.
Our strength is in the collective, and collectively, this team of humans is ready to go. Again.
If you're like me, the pride and joy you felt watching Gilmour's end to the season can only be made better by now knowing what he has gone through to be there. What he overcame to put in those performances.
As a Tartan Army, let's make sure the human, Billy, knows just how much we love him. In doing so, we're not only supporting what is good, and right, he might even do something else to take our breath away.
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