Alan Hutton has revealed that Scotland being unappreciative of Matt Ritchie may be one of the reasons why the Newcastle man decided to call time on his international career this month.
According to the Daily Mail, Ritchie announced his retirement from Scotland duty in order to spend more time with his family during the international breaks.
Ritchie has shown during his time with both Newcastle and Bournemouth that he’s one of the best and most creative midfielders Scotland has to offer, thus this decision from Ritchie will undoubtedly come as a blow for Steve Clarke.
Following this call from Ritchie, former Scotland international Hutton has come out and claimed that Scotland being unappreciative of Ritchie may be one of the other reasons why he decided to call time on his career with Scotland.
As per Football Insider, when speaking about Ritchie, Hutton stated “He obviously feels he’s a bit unloved when he goes up there, he doesn’t play all the time. Maybe he feels he can offer more but he feels he’s not getting the chance.”
During his time with the Scottish national team, Ritchie made just 16 appearances, scoring three goals in the process.
16 caps for a player of Ritchie’s quality seems quite low, especially when you consider his form during his times with both Newcastle and the Cherries, thus we can easily see why the midfielder would rather spend time with his family than spend time warming the Scotland bench.
