I’ve been a Durie fan ever since I saw him score three for East Fife against Hamilton Accies when he was

“I’ve been a Durie fan ever since I saw him score three for East Fife against Hamilton Accies when he was a boy,” he said. “After he joined Hibs, I used him in tandem with Robert Fleck in a very good Under-21 side, and I followed him closely when he was at Chelsea and Tottenham.”I also played him through the middle in my first match in charge, with Pat Nevin playing off him. But there were times when he was out of the Rangers side, or operating wide, and that made it harder to pick him.”Whoever plays alongside or off Durie, Ally McCoist’s calf strain means that Brown must create another fresh partnership less than a fortnight before the finals. The duo with which Craig Brown began the qualifying campaign, Duncan Shearer and Andy Walker, was never more than a holding operation.

As recently as February he was out of the Rangers team for seven weeks after a fourth hernia operation, and could have been excused had he booked the family holiday to coincide with Euro 96.Instead, circumstances have for once conspired in his favour, propelling Durie to the front of Scotland’s attacking pack. Here in Kennedy country, at a small suburban stadium in the New England town of New Britain, Durie today wins his 28th cap for Scotland in the friendly against the United States. With it comes an opportunity, as belated as it was unexpected, to establish himself as first-choice striker for next month’s European Championship in England.
Durie, who will be 31 in December, last represented his country exactly two years ago in Holland. And with a wily Mancunian signing rather than wasteful metropolitan one, instead of limping between two thoughts, we might then see a double-edged sword..

In an age when lazy adaptations like “Platty” and “Batts” abound, Gordon Durie resembles a one-man campaign to keep the footballer’s nickname alive. Cruel wits turned “Juke Box” in to “First Aid Box” because of his familiarity with the treatment table. Today, however, he could justifiably borrow one of Bill Clinton’s more respectable monikers: “the Comeback Kid”. “I have always believed that there must be a niche somewhere between English and European qualities,” he said. “But no one has exploited it since Liverpool.”We have to do away with this nonsense about going into battle and hoping everyone will fall down before the might of the English army It is more about resilience and belief.

If we can express that belief in terms of our character and culture, the likes of Juventus will find it hard to handle English teams have always been high energy. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you don’t waste it.”A concern is that United become sidetracked by the strengths of others rather than stay true to their own expansive nature. The grinding out of results late in the season often made for an unsatisfying sight given the club’s tradition but the Double secured again, perhaps they will rediscover themselves.Their aim must be to ally the attributes of the English to the example of the Europeans. “I watched all those clips of George Best on the celebrations of his 50th birthday and I thought that maybe Ryan could do something like that for us,” Jim Ryan, United’s reserve coach, said.Along with the also interested Brian McClair, Ryan, who will be part of Ferguson’s player-hunting dragnet of Euro 96, was on a Roman busman’s holiday last week and saw encouragement for his club.