Depends on your definition. He is now eligible to play for Scotland . . . . so in the world of Soccer he is Scottish.
He may have been born in England, but he sure sounds like a Scot to me. But then again Paul Dalglish was born in Scotland and sounds like a Scouser.
It was cool that he watched the final last year, as an "impartial observer," not knowing in 3 months he would be a part of one of the teams.
Andy Driver is English, but as a result of residency laws in scotland (he completed 5 years of his schooling in Scotland) he is eligible to play for the Tartan army. I am a massive Hearts fan and in my opinion you have signed someone who has the potential to be a great player for Houston but I would not put too much stock in the videos some have posted on here of Andy from Youtube. He has had a lot of injury problems since then and the lightning quick pace and directness, for which he became known, has been lacking from his game for the last couple of years. A better barometer would be his performance in the Scottish Cup Final from last year. He is still fairly quick, though not blisteringly so, and when he is full of confidence he really does pose problems for opposition defences. With reference to the Celtic minded poster from earlier in the thread he has certainly not been frozen out of late and has actually played fairly regularly this year but has perhaps suffered in a side that has been playing poorly. He has needed a move to reignite his career for a while and you guys seem like a good fit. He is most effective in a 4-4-2 as he is not a natural finisher and his crossing has improved over the years. He was most effective for us when he was playing in front of a progressive left back (Lee Wallace) who could supply him with balls over the top of the rightback in our case.
Thank you! You describe our preferred formation and style of play with our backs being very active in support of the attack. I wonder how he will break into our lineup in that formation though. Both our wings are national team players with our left wing being our captain and our right wing our highest paid player.
whatta i tell you. still sleeping on it. i have one scenario, but i don't wanna think about it, because it involves Brad Davis in the middle.
HAHA . . . . I actually think if Driver impresses Dom, we may see that. Not my preference as it negates one of Brad's biggest strengths but it is one way to get them all on the pitch. The other is the 4-3-3
I paraphrase, but toward the end of the interview: "Growing up in Scotland, you have to know the hard work, It's often the part of the game that are not the most exciting that are the most important" I like it.
Great post, thanks Rob. It remains to be seen what sort of player Driver will be for us, but I do like our recent trend of going after younger international guys who are in or moving into their prime (Boniek, Barnes, and now Driver) as opposed to the retirement home philosophy of some other MLS clubs.
I was surprised when I heard you had Giles Barnes in your squad. He was a fantastic prospect breaking through the ranks at Derby but then things seemed to stall badly for him. If you get him going then you have a great player in the making there as well. Andy Driver was a brilliant servant to Hearts and will always be remembered by my fellow Hearts fans as one of our Scottish cup winning side of 2012 - our greatest ever day - when we defated our biggest rivals 5-1. He ripped their defence to pieces that day and most of the support really thought he would kick on and get back to the player that we worshipped before his niggling injuries took over. Chelsea were interested in him at his peak and you must have something about you if they are taking note of how you are doing. He's a great guy too and I think our club will miss him.
Small correction but as far as we know, OBG isn't the highest paid player. It's probably Davis. At least going on last year's numbers. We'll see how exactly OBG's contract is structured in May when the salaries are released.
Wonderful information that you supplied and most of it confirmed my thoughts. Thanks for pointing out the above, too. After I originally posted I had a nagging thought in the back of my head that his Hearts "issues" were from previous seasons, most notably 2011/12.Correct me if I'm wrong, but he had major issues with Paulo Sergio who didn't start him and booted him from training saying Driver didn't want to be there. That was the "frozen out" I referenced. Although, IIRC, Drive did start down the stretch for Hearts. Sergio wasn't well liked at Tynecastle from what I've gathered. Under new manager John McGlynn, Driver's been a mainstay in the lineup, and rebounded from 2011/12.
From an Edinburgh (not the Texas one) friend of mine: "Driver was an U21 England international but got a bad injury a couple of years back and hasn't reached the heights he could have. That said, still quite a fast winger with a few tricks to show, sometimes too many over the early pass to a team mate, and a few goals as well. Likes the ball at his feet and make full backs look silly. Yep, you have a showman and if he realises he's playing against muppets, then he'll 'over ice the cake' (Try too many things) but he'll entertain you. He didn't leave Hearts cause he is poor, more Hearts are clearing their wage bill."
He did have a spat with Sergio around the midway point of the season. Sergio didnt think he was fit enough and i think Driver was shocked to not be a certain starter anymore but it was a genius move by the boss as a rocket under him was well and truly lit and he excelled towards the end of the season. Paulo Sergio was idolised by our fans last year. The most popular manager in recent years by a long way.
Since this is, yknow, official now, you'd think one of the mods would fix the title. Hello cougarclaws and...and....and....well, someone! Remember when we used to have awesome mods? I'm interested in seeing how Dom handles all these talented midfielders.