OPINION
Chris Sutton clearly is trying to get under the skin of some Rangers fans as he remarked on how some Gers fans wanted Ryan Jack to get more opportunities for Scotland.
The outspoken pundit was analysing the players new Scotland boss Steve Clarke had chosen to exclude from his first squad ahead of the games against Cyprus and Belgium.
This led Sutton to point out that some Rangers fans rated Jack highly as they had made it clear that they wanted the 27-year-old midfielder to earn more international caps.
However Sutton seemed to doubt whether Jack was good enough to be in Clarke’s latest squad as he questioned whether he was better than the options the manager ended up going for.
“Rangers fans wanted Ryan Jack. Fair enough he’s been all right this season but is he any better than those who have been picked?” said Sutton in his Daily Record column.
“Same with Motherwell’s David Turnbull. He had a great season but international football is a big step and his time will come.”
Jack missed out on Clarke’s first squad as the Scotland manager despite the boss naming five-uncapped players in his squad (Source: BBC Sport).
Yet it’s hard to see why Rangers fans are not right to deem the 27-year-old good enough to make Clarke’s squad.
Jack was consistently good across his 46 appearances for Steven Gerrard’s side in his 2018/19 campaign and he even managed to score four goals while assisting five.
So why isn’t the two-cap Scottish international in his country’s latest squad?
Sutton claims the midfield options Clarke has picked are better, but take Fulham midfielder Tom Cairney for example, who has made the squad; does he deserve to be ahead of Jack?
The 28-year-old had a very disappointing 2018/19 campaign as not only did his side get relegated, but he was personally lacklustre in a lot of his 33 outings.
When Cairney was able to feature, he did struggle with a few injury niggles in his latest season, he seemed out of his depth in the Premier League and only managed one goal as well as one assist.
While some will argue the standard of English’s top-flight is generally better than Scotland’s top division, at the end of the day, Jack wowed while Cairney struggled.
So it’s hard to see why Sutton believes the Gers midfielder isn’t worthy of a call-up but someone like Cairney is?
Given the pundit’s Celtic connections you feel he is just poking the bear by questioning how Rangers fans feel about Jack in order to get some sort of reaction out of them.