Gemmill comes out fighting
Scotland Under-21s boss, Scot Gemmill, has defended the protocols for his youngsters after they were slaughtered by club bosses following a Covid-19 outbreak during their trip to Greece.
The young Scots travelled to Athens in November, needing a win to qualify for the Euro Finals, but fell to a 1-0 defeat.
However, positive tests among two of Gemmill’s background staff led to three players also testing positive – Celtic’s David Turnbull, Ross Mccrorie from Aberdeen and his brother, Robby, of Livingston – while eight others were regarded as close contacts and had to self-isolate and miss games.
That led to a barrage of criticism from club bosses, with Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, branding the trip an “absolute shambles”, while Aberdeen’s Derek Mcinnes and former Motherwell manager, Stephen Robinson, were both outraged they had lost key players for subsequent games.
Lennon, of course, later had his own Covid outbreak to deal with, following the club’s controversial winter training camp in Dubai, which led to him, backroom staff and 13 of his players having to self-isolate and miss games.
SFA chief executive, Ian Maxwell, was forced to apologise and promised to conduct an extensive review.
He said: “We’re not running away from it. We want to make sure that everybody knows just how sorry we are that it’s got to this stage, and how much we’re going to work to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
“I completely understand exactly where the managers are coming from.”
In midweek, Scotland Under-21s were drawn against Denmark, Belgium, Turkey and Kazakhstan in their Euro 2023 section, with the first game due to be away in September.
And Gemmill (right), speaking for the first time since the uproar, is fully confident there will be no repeat in future trips.
He said: “I took great comfort from knowing that everything was done correctly.
“We worked with the very best staff, who were so diligent.
“I understand it was a very difficult situation for the clubs when their players didn’t return available to play. Of course I can empathise with that.
“But at the same time, going forward
I take real confidence from knowing everything was done correctly, and will be in the future, until this situation hopefully passes.
“We all realise the enormity of the virus, and how at risk everyone is. It’s just trying to control what you can.” Scotland were aiming to qualify for the Finals of an Under-21s tournament for the first time since 1996 when they suffered last-game heartache. But Gemmill insists the players will all learn from their disappointment, and it will eventually help with their development.
He said: “In terms of the development and the strengths of the performances over the last campaign, I think there was a real consistency about it, and there was real progress.
“It was a fantastic experience for our best young players. They all really maximised that opportunity that we gave them.
“At the same time, when you get into that position and you realise how well they’d done and how close they were to qualifying, then it absolutely was a huge disappointment not to get to the Finals.
“But you know what? When you speak about the development of young players, those highs and lows that we got during the campaign are absolutely crucial along their pathway.
“I don’t care who you are, or where you come from. Your pathway is never going to be smooth.
“The highs and lows, in my opinion, really test the players and help them become better players in the future.
“Of course, we would have loved to have won that last game and get to the Finals.
“But my job is to see the bigger picture, and keep things in perspective.”