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Vogts looks to youth for his first test

Phil Shaw
Tuesday 19 March 2002 01:00 GMT
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The dearth of talented young Scottish players has been lamented so frequently that it has become accepted as fact. Berti Vogts clearly intends to see for himself after naming three teenagers in a raw-looking squad for his first match as Scotland's manager, the small matter of France in Paris a week tomorrow.

The world champions away? What better occasion, Vogts argued yesterday, to assess the seven uncapped players among the 22 named for the friendly in the Stade de France. The upheaval is most dramatic in defence – which will be a four-man unit instead of the trio favoured by Craig Brown – where familiar names like Colin Hendry, Tom Boyd and Matt Elliott have given way to Gary Caldwell, Stephen Crainey and Kevin McNaughton.

Hendry is injured, while Boyd has unofficially retired from international football, but Elliott, the English-born centre-back, is the first high-profile casualty of the Vogts era. "If I took him, he would probably be sitting on the bench, which isn't much use at the age of 34," the German said. "It is better to take a young player."

Caldwell, currently on loan from Newcastle to Hibernian, fits that bill, as do McNaughton, of Aberdeen, and the Rangers midfielder Stephen Hughes, none of whom has turned 20.

Crainey is only slightly older. Tommy Burns, Vogts' assistant, underlined the new regime's thinking when he said of Crainey: "Anyone who can perform in the hotbed of Valencia and in an Old Firm derby has the composure to play international football. There's no point in waiting until he's 26 to find out."

The others who have yet to win a full cap are the back-up goalkeepers, Robert Douglas and Paul Gallacher, and Steven Thompson, 23, the Dundee United striker. Thompson's selection was perhaps the nearest equivalent to Sven Goran Eriksson springing Chris Powell on to the England scene.

With such a squad – seven of the 14 who played in Brown's final match are absent, while Stevie Crawford, Kenny Miller and Scott Severin have appeared only as substitutes – it is obvious why Vogts was keen to coax Paul Lambert out of international retirement. He hailed Lambert's midfield partnership with Barry Ferguson as "maybe the best in Britain".

Rangers have hinted at withdrawing Ferguson, pointing out that he has a rib injury that requires him to take painkillers. But Vogts, who also failed to lure John Collins and Duncan Ferguson back into the fold, made an early stand against the culture of call-offs that blighted Brown's reign, saying: "Barry played well in the CIS final and after Paris he has 10 days' rest. I expect him to be there. It's not Cyprus or Malta."

SCOTLAND SQUAD

Douglas (Celtic), Gallacher (Dundee Utd), Sullivan (Tottenham); Caldwell (Newcastle), Crainey (Celtic), Dailly (West Ham), Matteo (Leeds), McNaughton (Aberdeen), Pressley (Hearts), Weir (Everton), Cameron (Wolves), B Ferguson (Rangers), Hughes (Rangers), Gemmill (Everton), Lambert (Celtic), McNamara (Celtic), Severin (Hearts), Crawford (Dunfermline), Freedman (Crystal Palace), McCann (Rangers), Miller (Wolves), Thompson (Dundee Utd).

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