The last thing on the minds of any Sheffield Wednesday players at the moment should be this summer’s European Championships.

After just two wins in their last 14 games, not a single player at Hillsborough is staking a strong claim to be called up for their respective national teams, but there’s one player at the Owls who would disagree with that sentiment.

Indeed, Barry Bannan’s recent comments are perhaps rather baffling. They show that he has one eye on a Scotland call-up this summer as his national team target a spot at the Euros with their qualification playoff on the horizon.

“Hopefully if I'm doing well enough I'll get the call. I've not retired, I want to play, it's my country. Everybody wants to play for their country and they have two massive games so if I get called up obviously I'll go and play," he said.

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Bannan hasn’t played for Scotland since 2017, and if we’re being honest he’s not done enough this season to change that stat.

He’s played plenty of football, but he simply hasn’t been good enough with fans often ripping into his displays. That's understandable too given he's only been involved in one goal this calendar year.

It’s a good thing to have ambition, but Bannan must be living on another planet if he thinks he’s worthy of a nod, especially when you consider the calibre of talent he’s up against.

John Fleck and John McGinn have both starred in the Premier League this season, with Fleck being touted as high-flying Sheffield United’s Player of the Season and McGinn contributing to five goals in 18 appearances for a struggling Villa side.

Away from those two you’ve still got the likes of Scott McTominay who is a regular for Manchester United. Tom Cairney, meanwhile, has 11 goal involvements for Fulham as they chase promotion, while you’ve also got Callum McGregor acting as one of Celtic’s more important players north of the border, netting 13 times. That’s all without even considering the new flavour of the month Billy Gilmour.

The fact of the matter is that Scotland are spoilt for choice when it comes to central midfielders, there are a plethora of top-flight and high-end Championship players, so there’s no need for Steve Clarke to look towards Bannan as a potential option.

We can only hope that Bannan’s blind ambition of going to the Euros this summer spurs him on to play a bit better towards the end of the season, but he shouldn’t be waiting by the phone expecting Clarke to tell him he’s in the squad anytime soon. For the moment, he's simply living in fantasy land.

In other news, Sheffield Wednesday may be about to take a huge risk.