The midfielder’s international transformation came after a chat with the manager

Scott McTominay

Scott McTominay’s Scotland career really seemed to kickstart after a double against Cyprus in the Euro qualifying campaign.

He followed it up with another brace in the following game, that memorable win over, Spain and has a further three strikes since. That’s seven of the eight goals he’s scored in his entire international career. McTominay was only a sub for the win over the Cypriots and has revealed a kick up the backside from the manager helped transform him.

He was already loved by the Tartan Army but has managed to elevate his standing with the support even more with those crucial goals. But he admits to sulking a bit due to not being in the Manchester United team and that reflecting in his mood when he reported for international duty.

“Yes, I’d say it did,” said the 27-year-old. “That was the camp where the manager and I sat down and he said that I didn’t look happy, that I didn’t look like I was smiling about the place.

“He just said he wanted to see the kid who was happy whenever he first came on the scene and was playing every week. He saw a boy who was smiling all the time. I thought ‘Maybe he’s right’. I spoke to my mum, my dad, my girlfriend at the time and they all pretty much said the same thing. I feel like in my family it’s all about happiness and enjoyment.

“If my dad knows I’ve got a smile on my face when I’m playing, along with my grandparents, my mum, my sister and my girlfriend, then that’s all they want. If maybe I’m looking like I’m sulking a little bit like maybe I was a couple of years ago or a year ago, then they want to know why and want to help you.

“They’ll say, ‘We’re here to help you, speak to the manager’. That’s why it’s so important for young footballers to have a good support system around them. I’ve been very, very lucky in that respect.

“Sometimes you just need to enjoy football, play with a smile and take it easy. Not everything’s the end of the world if you’re not playing so well and you’re not in the team, whatever.

“Ever since that, I ‘ve just thought, ‘Let’s go for it’. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders. You’re always going to have difficult periods in your career where you reflect on where you’ve come from and where you want to get to.

“Sometimes a conversation with the manager can be the best thing. It resets your brain, your mind and you think, ‘You know what, I can do this. I want to show that I can gain peoples’ trust’. By speaking to someone, especially the manager because he’s honest and he’ll tell you up front, it can make a significant difference. I just want to do my absolute best for Scotland.”

McTominay reckons Scotland can make an impression in Germany and become the first Scots side ever to make it past the group stages of an international tournament.

But he was told fans will generally expect to go out in the groups due to past failures.

“That upsets me, hearing that,” he admitted. “I don’t like hearing that. You can’t go there and play average and come home like we did in 2021. There’s no way we want that.

“You have to have more ambition than that. You have to go there with a little bit of fire in your stomach and go: Listen, do you know what, forget about the rest of it and forget about what anyone says, we are concentrating on us and that is final.

“We want to go there and not get too carried away or say outlandish things, but we want to go there and do well and represent as an individual the best of your capabilities and as a team.”