Scotland's Unattached FC cohort sit in shop window as Scott McKenna discusses Celtic-Rangers interest

The boutique stores of upmarket Garmisch-Partenkirchen might cater for expensive tastes but Scott McKenna is planning to insert himself in the biggest shop window of all this month.

The defender is part of a larger than normal group of players whose fate it has been to be without a club at Euro 2024. Along with Ryan Jack, Stuart Armstrong and Liam Cooper, McKenna is a member of Unattached FC. This team has comfortably the largest number of Scots at the tournament. The group might even form a clique as they wander around their HQ in the mountains of Bavaria discussing what might happen next.

Che Adams, meanwhile, is in talks to sign a new deal with Southampton with his current deal expiring a the end of this month. Goalkeeper Liam Kelly has signed a short-term deal with Motherwell, where his contract had ended. This ensures the Fir Park club receive a six-figure compensation fee from Uefa for having a player included at Euro 2024 and means "Motherwell" will appear next to his name when Uefa issue team sheets.

Scotland's Scott McKenna during a press conference at the Garmisch Olympia Stadium.

It will be interesting to see what they will put in the cases of the others. The Euros are now their stage, although they hardy need the extra incentive of playing for a move while competing for Scotland in a major finals. In any case, any intention to impress watching suitors hinges on one very salient detail – they are picked to play by manager Steve Clarke.

It’s not out of the question McKenna could line up against Germany on Friday. He could certainly feature at some point of the tournament opener. Having led his country out against Mexico at the Azteca stadium in front of over 70,000 when he just 21-years-old, it’s unlikely either role would faze him.

McKenna will be ready having managed to make a positive out of an unpromising situation at Nottingham Forest, where a contract issue left him in purdah. He played just five league games in the first half of this season. Fortunately, Forest agreed to let him join FC Copenhagen on loan, where he made his Champions League bow against Manchester City and played himself into Clarke's Euro 2024 squad. In this year of all years, further inactivity at the City Ground was simply not an option for McKenna.

So what's next? Regularly linked with Celtic, and having got a taste for Champions League football, Parkhead might seem like one obvious potential destination. Despite growing up in Angus, McKenna was taken to Parkhead by his Celtic-supporting and former Forfar Athletic footballer father, Ian. There’s also been reported interest from Rangers. The 27 year-old has not ruled out returning north of the Border, where he made the breakthrough at Aberdeen.

Scotland's Che Adams during a training session - he is also a free agent.

“To be honest I am open to anything,” he said on Tuesday. “I would never rule anything out. But in terms of the speculation, that’s all it’s ever been. It has never really gone any further than that and until there is anything that’s more than that I don’t really have anything to think about.”

“There is no bigger stage if you are on the pitch to put you in the shop window,” he added. “I can only do that by first and foremost training well and trying to get in the manager’s thoughts.”

He has told his agents to let him be for the time being. “They are brilliant like that anyway,” he said. “They would not interrupt me.”

He has something he needs to be getting on with in the meantime as he concentrates on winning cap No 35 – and beyond. He skippered the national side in just his fourth cap in Mexico under Alex McLeish, when he estimates the entire side had fewer than 30 international appearances between them. Now he’s part of a squad that has over 800. “It shows how far we’ve come in those six years,” he said.