English phones are ringing once again as Scotland becomes popular topic of conversation

The manner in which Gordon Strachan's side ran their English counterparts close at Wembley was part of it but it helps, too, that the football grapevine is buzzing about kids such as Ryan Gauld, Andrew Robertson and John Souttar coming through at Dundee United, or Stevie May scoring goals at St Johnstone.

"It was almost embarrassing when you spoke to people down the road and that was the attitude, that there were no players up there," said McGhee, who is still based on the south coast. "They would see players coming up here who were inferior to anything they had. You have got to remember these clubs have contacts up here and get phonecalls saying 'you have got to look at this player'. For a while they weren't getting those so there was no need to come.

"But it is happening again; people are saying there are good players in Scotland, so come and see them. The fact they are talking in positive terms about it, and even about how the national team has done, I think everyone's attitudes towards it are becoming a bit more positive again and that can only be a good thing."

Identifying talent is one thing, nurturing it is another. That is the challenge which falls to Strachan and McGhee in relation to the likes of Gauld, who although still eligible for the Under-19 side, is in line to make his Under-21 debut against Georgia in Paisley tomorrow night. While the manager's onus so far has been on working intensively with a gradually-evolving group of senior professionals, McGhee hopes that the likes of Gauld and Souttar will be full internationals in five years time. "Young players are going to be vital to us in the next few years," said McGhee. "We all know there is going to be a finite number of players, over the next four or so years, who are going to be available for us.

"The more of them that look like they are going to come through, and eventually the more that do come through, that is only going to help us. It is really encouraging that teams like Aberdeen and Dundee United are turning up these young players who look like they are going to be the real deal."

Another two players with a Dundee United connection joined the pool yesterday, ahead of Friday's Hampden friendly against the United States: Craig Conway - on-loan at Brighton & Hove Albion from Cardiff City - and Gary Mackay-Steven replaced James Forrest and Chris Burke. While Robert Snodgrass and Steven Fletcher did not train yesterday because of minor injuries, McGhee was entitled to feel rather pleased that disruption has been kept to a minimum. "The manager, sitting round the dinner table the other night, made that point," McGhee said. "When you look at Croatia, it is the same group of players, time in, time out. Their changes seem to be about the manager making a technical or tactical decision to play somebody or not play somebody; his mind is not made up by the fact that four or five of the players don't turn up. Whereas in more recent years here there has been a lot of that going on. We hope that is a malaise which is going to disappear."

The friendlies against the USA and Norway offer a chance for limited experimentation, although the Scotland camp will be loathe to lose the new-found consistency of selection and performance they have found in recent months. Neither will there be any urge to use umpteen substitutes. "For the sake of the integrity of the game, we will only change a reasonable number of players," said McGhee.

Considering how swimmingly everything suddenly seems to be proceeding in the camp, the only real downside is how long it is before Scotland have a properly competitive match. Approximately, it will be a minimum of 10 months and anything up to eight friendlies. "You can do as much damage as you can do as much good in those seven or eight games," said McGhee. "There is a need to get through them with a positive attitude."