Hibs’ midfielder Scott Allan has revealed that he hasn’t given up hope of an international call-up despite Scotland manager Steve Clarke having previously released him from West Brom when he was in charge at the Hawthorns.
The 28-year-old was previously capped 10-times at Under-21 level but despite some outstanding performances in the green and white of Hibs, he has never been rewarded with a full cap.
He told BBC Sportsound: “For me, I’d look back at certain clubs and feel I have underachieved there. Some not given the time I needed to adjust to certain things. It was always an ambition when I was young to be in the Scotland team.
“I still think now at 28 it’s never too late. I need to keep showing fans what I can do and make the Scotland set-up see you need that type of player in your team that can cut somebody open.
“I would love it to get the call-up but Stevie Clarke was the guy who let me go from West Brom all those years ago.”
Glaswegian Allan started his career under Craig Levine at Dundee United before being lured to West Bromwich Albion as a teenager by Roy Hodgson who rated him highly but left to take over the England managers job.
A series of loans followed before Alan Stubbs brought him back to Scotland with Hibs and his performances soon caught the attention of both halves of the Old Firm.
He subsequently signed for Celtic but the moved never worked out and he re-joined Hibs in the summer of 2019.
Allan has finally found regular first-team football but he revealed that he could have been back earlier but for the intervention of Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell.
He added: “He (Peter Lawwell) basically said he’d done Hibs too many favours over the years and I wasn’t going there.
“If things had gone better for me at Celtic then I would never have got back to Hibs – and I can honestly say that my times at Hibs under Stubbsy [Alan Stubbs], Neil Lennon and now Jack Ross have been the happiest I’ve been in my football career.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
