TEENAGERS are supposedly grumpy and uncommunicative.
Not all of them, though. Although Ryan Gauld turned up an hour-and-a-half late for a scheduled media event yesterday afternoon the 18-year-old was not to blame: he was training with Scotland and the session overran under manager Gordon Strachan. Gauld, once he sat in front of reporters, was the anti-teen: cheerful and open.
He is the most interesting youth in Scottish football. The bare bones of his year are well enough known: a £3m move from Dundee United to Sporting Lisbon in the summer began a new chapter in his career and in his life.
For the first time he spoke at length yesterday about the excitements, the challenges and the minor stresses of uprooting himself and starting again in another country. Scottish players do not exactly have a very distinguished record in this regard, so Gauld warmly embracing his cultural upheaval was hugely encouraging. For a while he felt homesick - so many previous Scottish exports were unable to let go of the apron strings - but not for long.
"I've really enjoyed it. It did take me a wee bit of time to settle in but I really like it now," he said. "It's a very good standard and every team plays a passing game."
He has been playing, and playing well, for Sporting's B team which sits ninth in the Portuguese second division after 10 games. "It's maybe a wee bit more aggressive than the top league. I'm playing in there so I can get used to it.
"To begin with I missed family and friends, but now I've been there a few months I'm dealing with it fine. I knew before I signed that I'd miss everyone, but I also knew that I could deal with it long-term.
"By playing in the B team I'm getting used to the club and the football. We'll take it slowly and see when the time is right for me to get to the first team."
He is being hothoused in the second tier to prepare him for Sporting Lisbon proper. "The Second Division is not a big thing in Portugal. Our B team games don't have huge attendances, there is no focus on it. At the same time, there is no pressure on you from the stands.
"It's a great way to play football. Everything is based on passing from the back and building attacks. Most of the team can speak English which is good for me until I improve my Portoguese. They have been great helping me out and making sure that if I need anything I have someone to ask.
"I do notice that physically I'm a lot sharper and the individual programs have brought me on. The training at United was great but training at Sporting is a lot more demanding; no-one gets away with not giving 100 per cent every session.
"I think that the intensity of training has been the biggest shock. In Scotland you get a lot of time off, but in Portugal there are fewer days off. It's great for individual development. I just try to fill my time learning new things and every day after training I have my Portuguese lessons which helps too."
His form dipped away with United last season, to the point that manager Jackie McNamara sent him and team-mate John Souttar away on a mid-season holiday in order to recharge their batteries. "At the end of last season I knew I wasn't playing as well as I could. I tried different ways to address why it just wouldn't click for me as it had done at the start of the season. But then I realised I'm still young and maybe that's just something that's going to happen, a dip in form.
"I tried to do work in the gym on the physical side of things to help me counteract what I was coming up against. I also looked at whether it was a tactical or a mental thing.
"I came to the conclusion that I was getting man-marked more, so that was down to the tactical side and learning how to deal with it. There was the physical side as well, so there were a few reasons. I'm still addressing some of them. I'm doing a lot of work and as far as international football goes the physical side is really important so I still need to improve on that.
"To be over in Portugal now and starting again is really good for me. The main reason I chose to go abroad was that the style of football is something I've always really liked. I also wanted to learn another language and see how things are done elsewhere."
As the rest of the Scotland squad scatters around Scottish and English clubs after the game in Poland on Tuesday, Gauld alone will head to mainland Europe. He has a flat in Lisbon, near Sporting's training ground. The more time passes, the more it feels like a proper new home.
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