GORDON Strachan has insisted that Stevie May and Ryan Gauld were not fast-tracked into the Scotland squad simply because they had recently left the Scottish Professional Football League.
May was included in the 27-man squad named yesterday for the Euro 2016 double-header against Georgia and Poland. The 21-year-old was never called up while scoring 32 goals in 80 games for St Johnstone but he has been included within two months of having moved to Sheffield Wednesday. Similarly Gauld, 18, played 50 times for Dundee United but was not called up before he signed for Sporting Lisbon during the summer.
There were only three SPFL-based Scots in Strachan's squad though he said he had wanted to pick May for the friendly against Nigeria in May but the player was needed by under-21 manager Billy Stark.
"To be fair he would have been in the Nigeria squad but he was needed for the under-21s. The reason he wasn't picked for Germany [last month's Euro 2016 opener] was because we knew how we wanted to go and also I wanted to see him settled. He has just been through that traumatic on/off transfer. So he has settled in."
Gauld was a surprise inclusion given that he has yet to play a game for Sporting Lisbon's first team, although he is in the squad they registered for the Champions League.
"I just want to get to know him," said Strachan. "I've only seen him from afar. I've not actually sat down and spoken to him and said 'what are your ideas on the game and how can you play with these players?' The way we're playing, I think he'll be able to step in here and add to our training sessions. Whether he does enough to get on the bench or play, that's entirely up to him."
Scott Brown and Andrew Robertson are back in the squad having missed the Germany game through injury. Scotland face Georgia at Ibrox a week on Saturday, and Poland in Warsaw three days later.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article