Scot Gemmill will be happy if Under-21s win full Scotland caps

Toing and froing between a Scotland manager and his under-21 counterpart over young players on the periphery of the senior set-up hasn’t been uncommon in the past. It will never occur as long as Scot Gemmill is occupying the under-21 coaching berth. It was something he hadn’t even thought about in the lead-up to putting together a squad for the European Championship qualifiers against Latvia and Ukraine that will be staged in Perth next Friday, 10 October, and the following Tuesday.

Toing and froing between a Scotland manager and his under-21 counterpart over young players on the periphery of the senior set-up hasn’t been uncommon in the past. It will never occur as long as Scot Gemmill is occupying the under-21 coaching berth. It was something he hadn’t even thought about in the lead-up to putting together a squad for the European Championship qualifiers against Latvia and Ukraine that will be staged in Perth next Friday, 10 October, and the following Tuesday.

A niggly hamstring has led West Bromwich Albion to make winger Oliver Burke unavailable but other than that there is continuity in Gemmill’s squad selection. The decision by interim Scotland manager Malky Mackay not to call up any players from the 21s for next week’s friendly against the Netherlands was acknowledged as a “boost” by Gemmill. He was hardly doing cartwheels, though, over the fact that centre-backs John Souttar, Scott McKenna and Ross McCrorie, of Hearts, Aberdeen and Rangers respectively, didn’t make the senior breakthrough.

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For despite his side appearing in real contention to end the country’s 21-year finals exile after early wins over the Dutch and Latvia in their group, the 46-year-old’s focus is on furthering international careers – not his own.

“Malky is the boss. If Malky wanted any of the players he would have them,” said Gemmill, pictured. “It was his decision. He had to pick a squad to play against Holland and he’s done that. If he decided to take any of my players, I wouldn’t have been able to stop him. It’s as simple as that. But I wouldn’t try to stop him. Everyone speaks about winning or developing but of course I wouldn’t stop him from picking them.

“I wouldn’t have opened my mouth because I’d have been delighted that the players were getting the chance to play for Scotland. Who am I to stop that? That’s the reason for having an under-21 team. I promise you, I don’t think about how it might affect me. It’s not about me, it’s about the team and the players.

“That’s not me being humble, I just don’t feel like that. I get constantly reminded by people on the sixth floor at Hampden like Campbell Money that it’s not my Scotland team, it’s Scotland’s Scotland team. Would I rather qualify or see half of these boys go on to play for Scotland? Why can’t we have both?

“It’s all about the full squad, there’s no question about that. Hopefully we can get a balance where, game by game, we can try to progress. That’s how I saw the ten fixtures at the start of the campaign. There are challenges to them all.

“When we come to play Andorra, there will be an expectancy to win – but England struggled to beat them 1-0. That’s the reality. So far, we did find a way to beat Holland and it was the same away in Latvia. They did not find a way to get past England [Scotland lost 3-1 last month]. “That’s the way it is. And it’ll be the same in the full squad, you have to find a way to win. Everyone is watching them, they’re under the microscope.”

Gemmill doesn’t mind admitting that next week’s Latvia game against a team the young Scots beat 2-0 away last month has him fretting over falling victim to “Scotland syndrome” – wherein a nation slips up in a seemingly winnable game.

“In the summer, the under-17s played Faroe Islands in the first game of the Euro finals,” he said. “That was my worst nightmare, not beating the Faroes, when I knew we had a good team. Anyone who saw that game, it was unbelievably hard. They parked the bus and fought as if their lives depended on it. All credit to them. That’s the challenge to our players. We kept playing the way they’d been coached and found a way to win.

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“Believe me, it wasn’t easy. It was the same in Toulon against Indonesia [when a 2-1 win took the Scots into the semis]. I can see it from the fans’ perspective. But when you’re playing a team who have possibly been in camp for four weeks preparing to stop you – it’s very difficult. Luckily, we then had to play Brazil in the same tournament where the challenge was totally different, almost the reverse. That’s the challenge for our young players. Not just their technical level, but their character, responsibility, concentration and to play on the day.”