Charlie Nicholas became an Arsenal hero, but his decision to join the north Londoners did not go down well with his Scotland manager, who snubbed him until his death just before the 1986 World Cup

Charlie Nicholas was snubbed by his Scotland manager for joining Arsenal instead of Liverpool.

The former forward, 62, came up through the ranks at Celtic, where he won the Scottish Premier Division twice between 1980 and 1983. His outstanding 1982/83 season, where he netted 48 goals in 53 appearances, saw the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan show interest in signing him.

Nicholas opted to join Arsenal in 1983, where he became a club hero for netting a brace against Liverpool in the 1987 League Cup final at Wembley Stadium. But his performances for the Gunners between 1983 and 1985 were not deemed good enough to see him picked for Scotland.

The former Sky Sports pundit, speaking to Jeff Stelling on the ‘Football’s Greatest’ podcast, revealed that manager Jock Stein did not pick him for the national team as he wanted Nicholas to sign for Liverpool, which boasted Scottish stars such as Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish.

Stein refused to come as far down as London to watch the forward play. And Nicholas would have not have made the Scotland squad for the 1986 World Cup had Sir Alex Ferguson not come to the rescue, taking over when Stein died immediately after an '86 World Cup qualification match.

Nicholas said: “[I have] tremendous memories of the World Cup, Jeff. I wasn’t anticipating going. Jock Stein had stopped picking me because I’d joined Arsenal [from Celtic in 1983]. He wanted me to join Liverpool.

“We had a discussion. Jock never really came and watched Arsenal, he would never come that far south. So he came to Anfield, and we always watched [Anfield], and he had a word after with me saying I chose the wrong club. And I thought, ‘There’s nothing I can do about that now!'

“At that time I actually thought I was playing okay. I thought I should still be in the squad, but he just said I was having a bad time and didn’t pick me.”

Nicholas continued: “In 1986, Ferguson took over temporarily. He was Aberdeen manager still but he came to watch me at Aston Villa. He said to me after the game ‘I don’t know why you’ve not been in the squad, I hear you’re playing well but because we don’t see much of you in Scotland everybody thinks the opposite'."

Nicholas played two out of the three group stage matches against Denmark and Uruguay in Mexico. Scotland failed to progress to the knockout rounds, having lost two of their matches and drawn against a 10-man Uruguay in the final fixture.