McBurnie has been depicted over the years as a negative force in the squad, a rumour that is never actually substantiated by anyone in the know. What you hear about instead from the camp is a livewire with a big personality. A good lad.
“It was people on the outside putting two and two together without any substance,” he says. “If you ask anyone I’ve ever worked with in the national set-up or at club level, I’d like to think that they’d tell you that the one thing I try and be is a very good team-mate whether I’m playing or not playing.”
The perception of McBurnie as a problem player – and part of the reason why some of the Tartan Army might not have wanted him back – was not just 16 goalless games but also a certain video of him trashing the Scotland set-up.
It was 2019 when he was a Sheffield United player. McBurnie was caught on camera talking to his fellow Scot, John Fleck. McBurnie said he hoped he wasn’t going to get called up by Scotland because things were, er, not good.
“The video was from a behind-the-scenes thing,” he explains. “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.
“So, 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, if you know what I’m saying.
“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.
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