Oli McBurnie ends five-year Scotland exile as Pocognoli hands Hull striker fresh start

McBurnie back in the Scotland fold after five years out

Oli McBurnie says he is “eternally grateful” to be back in the Scotland squad and ready to show his country what they have missed after a five-year absence from the international fold.

The 30-year-old Hull City striker was a tattoo of Al Pacino in full Scarface mode on his left arm — a nod, he says, to Tony Montana’s single-minded determination. “I liked the fact that he knew exactly what he wanted,” McBurnie told BBC Sport Scotland in La Manga. “He’s a psycho. I don’t condone a lot of his methods, but he knew what he wanted and he did anything to get it.”

It is a fitting metaphor for a player who has spent five long and controversial years on the outside looking in, only to be summoned back by new head coach Sebastien Pocognoli.

A long road back

“There were times when it looked like I was never going to come back,” McBurnie admitted. “The older I’ve got and the more mature I’ve got, you really appreciate these times a lot more. When I was last in the squad, I was a kid really. You think it’s just going to always be like this. I probably did take it for granted a little bit.

“I didn’t play well enough when I put on the Scotland shirt. I can hold my hands up and say that. I didn’t give the best representation of me as a player or as a person and that’s something that I’m here to change. I’m just so thankful that I’ve been given the opportunity to do that. I’ll be eternally grateful to the manager for giving me the chance. I’m more determined to go out there and prove why I belong here.”

Pocognoli has reacted to McBurnie’s club form where Clarke found it easy to ignore it. Last season with Hull, the striker scored 19 goals — the pick of them a 95th-minute play-off winner against Middlesbrough that sent his club to the Premier League. He is yet to score this season but is favourite to lead the line against Slovenia on Saturday.

The Clarke controversy

The shadow of former Scotland boss Steve Clarke is never far away. McBurnie handled the subject diplomatically, saying Clarke “had his own reasons for what he did.” Before naming his World Cup squad, Clarke received a call from the striker keen to know if he was in with a shot. He wasn’t — and McBurnie spoke about the chat in public, a move Clarke did not like.

“I rang him and I said, ‘I feel like I’ve been playing well’ and I just wanted to know his reasoning for [leaving me out] and if there was something he wanted me to do to improve. It went the way it went,” McBurnie explained. “There were no sour notes. He explained to me his reasons and that’s completely fair enough. I said I would keep performing, I’d keep trying to work my way into his plans. I never managed to do that. I was gutted. I felt like I had something to add to the Scotland team. The pinnacle of football to me is representing your country and representing your country at a World Cup is as good as it gets. So, yeah, completely gutted.”

The video that coloured his reputation

McBurnie has long been depicted as a negative force in the squad — a perception never substantiated by anyone in the know. The source of much of that reputation was a 2019 video, filmed while he was a Sheffield United player, in which he was caught on camera talking to his fellow Scot John Fleck and saying he hoped he wasn’t called up by Scotland because things were “not good.”

“The video was from a behind-the-scenes thing,” he explained. “Me being the person I am, I like to say a lot of things for reactions, stuff that you don’t mean, funny things. I say things almost to protect myself from insecurities. Being asked if I’m going to get called up for Scotland and me saying, ‘I hope not’, it’s almost protecting myself if I don’t get the call.

“It’s something that I shouldn’t have said. I didn’t expect it to go out to the world. I rang Steve Clarke straight away and apologised and he said, ‘Yeah, I get it, but you’ll have to apologise to all the lads’. That was it done and dusted. I went on to play however many games for Steve Clarke after that, but it’s something that gets brought up. I get why it is.

“I was maybe 23-years-old, an insecure kid. I’ve definitely grown up. I’m a lot more confident and content with myself. There’s a lot less need for me to say those things and hide behind them. It was silly.”

‘A different person’

Since his last cap, McBurnie has had two children, become engaged, lived in Spain for a year at Las Palmas, and scored the winner at Wembley — one of the greatest moments of his life. “I’ve had two kids since I last won a cap. I have a fiancee. I’ve lived in Spain for a year. I’ve done all sorts of things that have opened up my mind and given me gratitude. I’m a different person, 100%.

“But I don’t necessarily want you to like me when I’m playing, especially if you’re an opposition fan. I want you to dislike me. It means I’ve been a nuisance in the game. My priorities have changed and every decision that I make now is with my kids and my fiancee at the forefront of my mind. I’m happy where I’m at now.”

The burning ambition remains to break his duck for Scotland — he has 16 goalless caps. “It’s got to me at times. It’s been hard to deal with. My job is to score goals and it didn’t happen so a one-yard tap-in or one that goes in off my backside — anything to get me off the mark with my country would be incredible.”

With Nations League matches against Slovenia (twice), Switzerland and North Macedonia ahead, and Pocognoli having handed him the chance he has craved, the rest is now up to McBurnie.