Participating in a World Cup is the pinnacle for every footballer but only a select number of men can represent their country on the biggest stage of all.
Sir Alex Ferguson led Scotland to the 1986 edition in Mexico and was given the honour of picking the players who would travel.
Pat Nevin joined Off The Ball on Monday night for the Football Show and shared a tale of how he found out he missed out on selection – with a twist along the way.
“Sir Alex had brought me into the squad and I played against England. It was tight – Scotland had a serious amount of top forwards,” Nevin said.
“Sir Alex Ferguson phoned me up just before it and said: ‘look, I’m really sorry, I’m not going to take you to this one, we’ve got a really strong squad. But you’ll be the first man we phone up if anything goes wrong’.
“I went into training the next day and met David Speedie at Chelsea and he said to me: ‘I got a call from Sir Alex Ferguson last night. He said he’s not taking me but he says I’m the first man he’s going to bring’.
“But to be honest I didn’t even take it badly. If I’m not absolutely number one then give it to somebody else.”
James Hopper
