ANDREW Robertson, the Hull City left back who helped the KC Stadium club win promotion with victory in the Championship play-off final at Wembley last week, believes being involved in the Premier League next season will help to establish him in the Scotland team.
Robertson, the former Queen’s Park and Dundee United defender, has only started for the national side intermittently since being handed his debut by Gordon Strachan two years ago.
Still just 22, he now faces increased competition for his place from his Kieran Tierney, his Celtic counterpart, who was, at the tender age of just 18, given his first cap in a friendly against Denmark at Hampden back in March. Charlie Mulgrew has also been utilised in his position.
Strachan, though, believes the level an individual plays his club football at is hugely important when it comes to international football and Robertson envisages that featuring in the top flight down south once again will work in his favour in the forthcoming Russia 2018 qualifying campaign.
Ahead of the friendly with Euro 2016 hosts France here in Metz this evening, Robertson said: “You want to test yourself against the best and you can only to that in the Premier League. In the Championship there are some top quality players, but they’re not world class.
“The world class players are in the Premier League and now all four Scottish boys at Hull are up. I’m sure the manager will be delighted to see that as there aren’t many there. We want players playing at the highest level so it when it comes to international games we are used to playing the top quality players that are in the France team, or the Italy team, and so on.
“In the Championship, there are no French international players in there, they are all in the Premier League or elsewhere. We have to test ourselves against them and if we do that it will stand us in good stead.
“I want to play at the highest level I can and get better. When I moved from Dundee United to Hull I got Premier League football under my belt, but unfortunately in a failing team because we did fail last season.
“But this season has been brilliant for me playing so many games and learning more and more in the Championship and at the end getting promotion. This season we are back to the Premier League and I hope I can learn from the last two seasons and get better.”
Robertson has welcomed the competition for the Scotland jersey which he now has from Tierney, who has performed above his tender years for Celtic both domestically and in Europe this season, and predicted the national team would ultimately benefit.
“I’ve not seen much of him, but the games I have seen him play in he’s been decent,” he said. “He’s had a great season, nobody is going to deny that, and he’s only going to get better. That’s good for Scotland.
“We are all delighted to see a young player coming through and I’m no different. Kieran’s a great player and I’m sure he’ll only get better. Competition at left-back is fine by me. We want competition all over the park and then it is up to the manager to choose.
“If he chooses him then I need to work harder to try and get in that team. But I’ll be trying to get that left-back spot and make it my own.”
Robertson - who, despite passing up an excellent scoring opportunity, enjoyed a good game as Hull defeated Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in the play-off final at Wembley last Saturday - is determined to end his season on a high by helping Scotland achieve an improbable result against France tonight.
He feels recording a draw or a win against Didier Deschamps’s side in the Stade Saint-Symphorien tonight will mean the national team kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign against Malta away in September with optimism.
“So far, I’ve had a good career personally in terms of moves,” he said. “But in team terms, with Queen’s Park I got beat in the play-offs, with United I lost the Scottish Cup final and then with Hull I got relegated.
“So far I’ve not experienced winning something. On Saturday the final whistle was just relief. I don’t want to spoil this week by putting in a bad performance against France. I’m sure the way we’ve been training all the boys are up for it and the manager is getting us up for it. This is our last game before the World Cup campaign and we need a bit of momentum going into it.”
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