Daily Record

SCOTT MOVE SO EASY

- KEITH JACKSON

ALEX McLEISH last night revealed he didn’t have to sweet talk Scott McTominay into choosing Scotland over England. The national boss named the Manchester United youngster in a new-look

27-man squad for friendlies against Costa Rica and Hungary later this month.

McTominay is the most high profile of the new boys but there were also places for Rangers winger Jamie Murphy, Hibs midfielder Dylan McGeouch and Barnsley striker Oli McBurnie. In fact, nine uncapped players have been drafted in as McLeish rings the changes.

And McTominay’s willing defection thrilled the manager who helped to make it happen after battling through blizzards to meet the 21-year-old at United’s Carrington training HQ a fortnight ago.

McLeish said: “I felt very chuffed with myself about that as I did a lot of travelling to get to Manchester. It was a wicked night.

“But I was very surprised by my first exchange with Scott. He just came straight out and said, ‘I want to play for Scotland.’

“I didn’t want to force anything down his throat so I told him I would phone him back the next week for a definitive answer.

“I just wanted to look in his eyes and see if he did want

to play for Scotland. I wasn’t going to plead with him or try to coerce him into joining us.

“I just wanted to ask him the question.”

Asked if he believes McTominay is ready for internatio­nal football after only a handful of top-team games at Old Trafford, McLeish said: “Yes, I think he has the temperamen­t and mentality and he’s working under Jose Mourinho who is an absolute legend in coaching circles.”

McLeish would neither confirm nor deny that Celtic’s Kieran Tierney has been earmarked for the role as Scotland captain. But he did make clear his desire not to follow Gordon Strachan’s lead by deploying the 20-year-old as a makeshift right-back with Liverpool’s Andy Robertson occupying the left back slot.

He said: “It is not in my plans to go forward with Tierney as the right-back for Scotland. And as regards the captaincy, I have not decided on that yet.

“I’ll wait until next week to reveal who the skipper for these games is. However, Tierney didn’t do himself any harm at Pittodrie (as captain in the friendly loss to Holland) with the leadership showed.”

 ??  ?? FRESH FACE McBurnie
FRESH FACE McBurnie

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