MARK McGhee has warned the players selected for Scotland’s end-of-season friendlies with Italy and France they risk being “embarrassed” if they fail to treat the games seriously.
Gordon Strachan’s side will end the 2015/16 campaign with matches against the Euro 2016 finalists in Malta on Sunday and France the following Saturday.
Friendly games involving the national team at this stage of the season have often been devalued by a large number of player call-offs in the past.
However, McGhee, the Scotland assistant, knows they must apply themselves fully in order to avoid suffering demoralising defeats ahead of their Russia 2018 qualifying campaign.
“I think the quality of the opposition helps,” he said. “Gordon was conscious of asking players to come after the season they have had and the disappointment of not qualifying to play against a lot lesser opposition.
“That is something the players would have found it difficult to get too motivated for. But it is Italy and France and they are fantastic teams to get the opportunity to play against. The actual quality of them focuses your mind. The players know they have to be up for it.
“If they come with any less than fully cocked they are going to get embarrassed. That itself is a good thing and it is a thing that is making this training camp of focused, concentrated, professional experience.
“This morning they were at it and the mood around the place seems to be talking about the games and the opposition. There is no chat about tiredness or holidays or long seasons. It is simply about the games and the excitement of playing against these teams.”
“Italy and France want to play games that are going to get them up to pace so that in the first game (at Euro 2016) they can hit the ground running. I think they will be hoping we are really going to give them a bit of a test.”
McGhee added: “Gordon knows it’s the end of the season and knows the boys have all had hard seasons and need a break – so we will get as much work into them as we feel is possible.
“If that requires a bit of downtime they will get the downtime. I don’t know if they will be playing golf, but we certainly won’t over-train them. We have a lot of back-up in the form of sports science in the doctors and the physios and so on to advise us.
“Gordon speaks to Darren Fletcher all the time and uses him as a barometer as to what the squad are feeling, be it tired or needing a rest. We keep in touch with them and sense how they are.
“But the idea would be to get as much work as possible done in preparation for the up and coming campaign. It’s a training camp, not a holiday camp – absolutely.”
Alan Hutton, Chris Martin and Lee Wallace have all pulled out of the Scotland squad this week due to injury and McGhee confirmed none of the trio would be replaced. “We will go with what we have,” he said. “We have 18 outfield players.”
McGhee also confirmed the Scotland players involved in the English Championship play-off final between Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley on Saturday would join up with the national squad following that match.
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