HAMBURG STAR READY TO ANSWER THE CALL
him to start. I feel totally ready,’ said the former Raith Rovers defender. ‘I have been playing nearly every game for Hamburg and I feel I have come on a lot as a player. ‘I got called up to the last two Under-21 trips and it was my first time getting away. ‘I follow it (the Scotland squad) on Twitter and the call-offs were tweeted. I never really thought about it until I got a call after training. ‘I was delighted to get the call on Sunday to come here. I definitely feel ready.’ Explaining why he feels the move to the second tier of German football has readied him for the test that could await him this weekend, Bates explained: ‘I have learned a different style of play over in Germany. ‘It’s more a case of playing out from the back and, in training, you always practise that with the ball. ‘So I have come on technically, I would think. ‘I have played in Old Firm games and also the Hamburg-St Pauli (derby) about a month ago. ‘So I’ve already experienced some big games in my career. I think you just go into every match with the same attitude and try to do your best. ‘You don’t think about the occasion too much, really.’ Despite Bates being out of contract at Rangers last summer, then manager Graeme Murty criticised him for rejecting Ibrox in favour of Hamburg by claiming the move had been motivated primarily by money. Bates, however, is adamant that the vast majority of people he has encountered since then have accepted that football reasons lay behind the leftfield switch. ‘I think everyone respected that I wanted to go down a different route,’ he said. ‘I never had many comments saying things like: “Oh why are you doing that?” Maybe some people did, but I never really read or heard them. ‘All the comments I saw were about how brave I was and how good it was that I was going out there and trying something different. ‘For me, it’s the best decision I’ve made.’ Brought up