Alan Hutton: Football Park Exclusive Interview

Alan Hutton: Football Park Exclusive Interview

Football Park recently got the opportunity to interview Scotland legend Alan Hutton courtesy of Betwright, here is what he said to say about the current state of affairs in the Premiership, National Team, and much more:

Q: What is the best atmosphere you’ve experienced as a player OUTSIDE of Scotland?

A: The first one that springs to mind was the Chelsea vs Spurs final, it was called the Carling Cup at that time, I think it was only my third game in, so to experience Wembley like that was incredible.

To play in LaLiga was something I wasn’t expecting to do in my career, some great places to go. The Mestalla, we played Valencia, and the stand just goes straight up, and the noise that goes round the stadium is incredible.

I played against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu when I was at Mallorca, and I played against Barcelona for Mallorca, and for Rangers in the Champions League. So very lucky, I’ll put it that way.

Q: How did you and the Scotland squad manage to pick yourselves up after the game against Italy in 2007 with the game finishing so controversially, and how did not kill the referee!?

A: I wanted to kill everybody! laughs I was devastated, I’m not going to lie. It was definitely me getting fouled and then for them to get a free-kick and then a goal to come not long after is obviously devastating.

I think for me that was a big opportunity to quality that passed us by, so it was difficult to take, but I also feel for Scotland in that era it was hard to qualify, there was some big teams within your group so it was always difficult. We were close… But I feel when you are so young at the time, you can deal with things like that better because you know you’ve got time on your hands and you can maybe come back.

Unfortunately we didn’t quality for a major tournament, but ye that was a devastating blow at that moment.

Q: What do you think the major difference is between this Scotland group and your generation?

A: I think there’s a couple of things, when you look at the nations league, if you top that you get the play-off spot that gives you the opportunity to get to a major tournament. The way the groups are now gives you a better opportunity as well. Back in my day we had larger groups and usually at least two big hitters in there, it could be Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, it was always going to be very difficult for us to qualify I felt.

The other big thing for me is the quality of player at this moment in time within the squad, they are all playing at a high level whether it be the Premier League, over in Italy, they are playing regularly in European competitions, so they are ready built for playing in big competitions.

Q: Who do you think are the favourites for the Premiership right now?

A: I’m still going to stick with Hearts I think at this moment in time even though they’re missing players in terms of Shankland and Devlin that are huge misses. Do I think Rangers are in a good place? Yes, I think their recruitment has been far better in the window so they’re obviously going to be a big challenge for them. Celtic are previous champions for a number of years, they know how to get it done. So it’ shaping up to a brilliant ending to the season, I’m really looking forward to it, but I just feel at this moment in time you have to say Hearts because they’ve produced and they deserve to be there.