Stephen Welsh is preparing for another Scotland appearance with a story that has taken him from the Celtic academy to the top of the Championship and back into the international picture. The 26-year-old defender is part of the squad for the Nations League fixture against Slovenia at Hampden Park on Tuesday (19:45 BST), a game that follows his first win in a Scotland shirt and could give him a fourth cap.
That win came in Skopje on Saturday night, where North Macedonia were beaten 0-2. For Welsh it was a first victory in international football, and he described the feeling as ‘a bit of relief’. He felt Scotland could have scored more. ‘We felt there could have been a lot more goals. Five or six and you probably couldn’t have argued,’ he said. ‘To get your first win under your belt is a good feeling. Hopefully it pushes us on now.’
The Slovenia match offers Scotland a chance to respond to last week’s 3-0 defeat by Switzerland, a game reduced to a non-event after Jack Hendry’s early red card. Welsh called it a ‘sore one’ and said the team had to suffer for 80-90 minutes. ‘That can take its toll mentally but we showed how strong we are going into North Macedonia,’ he said. ‘It will mean a lot for the squad, for the manager to come back home and put on a good performance and finish the camp with a win. You need to keep building on that. That’s the standard that we want to set.’
Welsh’s career began at Celtic, where he was an academy product and spent 18 years. When he left, he posted a social media video thanking the club. The footage included a clip of him as a child in a Celtic jersey, playing indoor football with the number 18 and the name ‘Lennon’ on the back. He turned down overtures from Udinese and Toulouse during his time at Celtic because he wanted to stay and fight for his place. After making his debut in the spring of 2020, however, he found himself behind a stream of centre-back signings: Carl Starfelt, Liam Scales, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Yuki Kobayashi, Moritz Jenz, Maik Nawrocki, Gustaf Lagerbielke and Auston Trusty. He played 70 games in total, but it was not enough.
‘It’s not easy but at a club like Celtic, they always want to improve, bring in more players because that keeps the competition,’ Welsh said. ‘It’s football. You’re not guaranteed to play even though you want to. For your boyhood club, to play every game, would have been the best-case scenario. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I’m a big boy, I can accept that players are going to play in front of you. That’s fair enough.’
Those years demanded mental resilience. Welsh says the unseen part of the challenge is the psychological side, and he credits a strong support network of family, friends and his agent for helping him. He insists he never took the competition personally. ‘The best players, technically, probably don’t [always] get to the top. It’s the players that are mentally strong,’ he said. He pointed to John McGinn and Andy Robertson as examples of the mentality required to produce performances week after week. ‘They’re obviously fantastic footballers but it’s the mental strength as well,’ he added.
In search of game time, Welsh signed a loan with Mechelen in Belgium before making what he describes as the move of his life to Motherwell. He says one conversation with manager Jens Berthel Askou was enough to hook him. Going from Celtic to Motherwell might not have looked like the most brilliant move, but it made him. ‘How he coached me on and off the pitch, it was top level,’ Welsh said. He did not realise how good a decision it was until close to the end of the season, when recognition began to arrive. ‘He just gave me pure belief,’ Welsh said of Berthel Askou. ‘He made the game so simple for the team and that helped me as well. Every single day, so detailed, how he analysed teams, how he analysed specific ways of playing against teams. The biggest influence on my career by a distance. He completely changed how my career path turned out.’
The next step was Swansea, where his Motherwell team-mate Elijah Just is alongside him. Welsh has found a manager in Vitor Matos who appreciates him and a dressing room that is talented and driven. Swansea are top of the Championship after eight games. Like Berthel Askou and Matos, new Scotland head coach Sebastien Pocognoli trusts him. Welsh had always felt that if he kept progressing at Motherwell and then Swansea, something might happen with his country. It has, and he has seized the moment. Three caps should become four against Slovenia, and if one win can become two, that smiling younger self may come to mind again.
It takes talent, resilience and good fortune in finding managers who believe in you, but dreams can come true. Welsh is living proof of it.