RYAN Gauld didn't make it on to the Scotland bench, let alone off it, against Georgia or Poland, but at least he has a Sporting chance.

For now, the 18-year-old playmaker exists on the fringes of stardom, his talents deemed sufficient to merit a £3.7 million transfer fee this summer from Dundee United, yet still judged raw enough to require further burnishing in the Segunda Liga along with the other prodigious works in progress in Sporting Clube de Portugal's B team.

That elusive next step, however, is so close he can almost touch it, especially after watching the progress of two of his former flatmates. Not only is Andy Robertson, with whom he shared a flat on Tayside, pulling up trees as a regular in the Premier League with Hull City and at international level, but within days of his arrival in Lisbon, Gauld was watching room-mate Eric Dier pack his bags for a £4m move to Premier League big boys Tottenham Hotspur. The 20-year-old English defender, who spent his teenage years in Portugal, graced Sporting B during the 2012-13 season and has already proved his worth with a couple of goals for Mauricio Pochettino's side.

"It was great to have Eric around," said Gauld. "If I needed anything he was there to help. I shared a room with him in pre-season so it was good just for a chat and stuff. I only knew him for a few weeks, but it was like having a familiar face around. I was gutted that he moved to Spurs, because maybe the next time I share a room with somebody, we can't speak a word to each other. That might be more awkward.

"I have been following him since he moved to Spurs. His first game in the Premier League he scored the winning goal and I think he has made a really good start there so I am really happy for him. Last year he didn't make so many appearances, but maybe that was because Marcos Rojo, who is at Man United now, was there. But he was obviously back late because of the World Cup while Eric came in pre-season and was doing really well and I think there were a couple of teams interested in him. That someone who wasn't even getting a game at Sporting last season is playing a lot of games for Spurs this year just shows how high the standard actually is."

Gauld is a bright kid, but it is fair to say that having been raised in the sleepy environs of Laurencekirk, the move to Lisbon has still presented a culture shock. And while football is a universal language, acclimatisation has been required when it comes to training alongside the extravagant array of Brazilian and Portuguese talent which populate Sporting's youth ranks, such as Jose Postiga, the younger brother of Portuguese international Helder. Gauld, regarded as a free spirit in the Scottish game, feels he is viewed differently in Portugal.

"There's a few young Brazilians, but the majority are Portuguese; they are all hugely talented and I am sure have big futures ahead of them," he said. "I would like to think my technique holds up, but there are maybe different styles. They are more flair players. It's great to try to compare myself with those sort of players."

While Gauld was named in Sporting's Champ- ions League squad, he is to remain with the B team for now so his only exposure to Europe's glamour club competition has been the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea. "I went to that with my mum and dad," said Gauld, who could be called up at any point so long as there is 72 hours' notice. "That was actually the first game I had been to watch and it was a great atmosphere; they were actually quite unlucky on the night.

"I have not been in any of the squads just now because I am playing with the B team and I have been told that's the way it will be for the foreseeable future and that's what I have to focus on. But if the manager was really happy with how I was doing and thought I was ready to go in, then he could call me in at any time."

Despite occasional bafflement about masculine and feminine verb tenses in Portuguese, Gauld is making good progress in learning the language. The rest of his time is devoted to the gym, making the physical enhancements he feels he needs to succeed. Nani, now back for a second spell at the club after his time at Manchester United, is the blueprint.

"I have been working with the guy in the gym who arrived the year Ronaldo left, but that was also the year Nani arrived and he's done a lot of work with him," Gauld said. "There's photos where you can see the difference it made to Nani. Hopefully, that's the aim for me as well ... but I don't have any acrobatics in my locker! The guy who takes me in the gym has a specially-planned programme that he feels is full of stuff that I need to develop to be faster, stronger, more agile, all that sort of stuff."

But no matter how much his body might change, a part of the youngster's brain will always be focused on events at Tannadice.

"I have managed to watch a lot of games," said Gauld. "It has been a terrific start and hopefully they can keep it up."