Scotland Men's Football Team

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Josh McPake "feels ready" for a Scotland call-up after an impressive start to life at Hearts.

The 25-year-old joined the Tynecastle club this summer having agreed a pre-contract back in January when he was still at St Johnstone and has forced his way into Wouter Vrancken's starting XI.

McPake set up teammate James Wilson for the opening goal in Thursday night's Edinburgh derby and scored one of his own as Hearts beat Hibernian 3-1.

New Scotland manager Sebastien Pocognoli was in the stands at Easter Road watching on as he prepares to select his squad for this month's Nations League matches against Slovenia, Switzerland, and North Macedonia.

"I do feel ready," McPake said when asked about a first international call-up for those games.

"When I was at St Johnstone, people would ask me all the time if I felt ready for the step up to Hearts, and I said 'yeah'.

"And I do feel like I'm ready for that step up, but it's not my decision to make.

"Hopefully performances like that [against Hibs] might help my case there. My goal was a massive one for everyone, I think.

"But I'm just taking it one game at a time at the moment. I've still got a good few games until the international break, so my full focus is on Hearts and things like that [Scotland] should come naturally."

Former national boss Gordon Strachan believes Scottish football needs a new way of thinking and questions whether young players express themselves and are brave on the ball. (Sun, external)

And ex-Scotland captain Paul Lambert has a "worry" for the game in his homeland. (National - subscription required, external)

New Celtic midfielder Oliver Sorenson, who is on loan from Parma, wants to apply the lessons he's learned from Scotland international and former Serie A opponent Scott McTominay, 29, of Napoli. (Record - subscription required, external)

Friday's Scottish gossip

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St Mirren manager Craig McLeish wants to see a homegrown player quota introduced to Scottish football.

The suggestion comes as the Scottish Football Association prepare to host discussions in St Andrews, which all 42 league clubs have been invited to attend, aimed at improving the prospects for homegrown talent in Scotland.

McLeish, who worked in St Mirren's academy and with the SFA as a development coach before taking on his role as Buddies boss, insists more youth involvement at club level will help the national team and improve the Scottish game overall.

"We have to put a quota in place for young players being involved in match day squads," McLeish said.

"Everything else they talk about might be good ideas, might need to rely on other people to make decisions on it. The only thing that's going to change is if we put the quotas in place.

"I've got the benefit in that I've come through the academy system here, worked with the youth national teams.

"I'm fed up of coaches, youth coaches, getting battered in this country, academies getting battered, youth national teams getting a bad rep.

"I've been part of it. We went away to Spain and beat them at under-16s, the under-17s have played against the likes of Italy and Portugal and competed against them. There's a lot of good work going on in this country.

"There is a lot of talented coaches, a lot of talented players but until we change the rules then it's always going to hit a brick wall at some point.

"You can go really extreme with it like Norway have. In Norway, I think 16 have to be homegrown, locally-trained, you can only have nine non-homegrown players in your matchday squad.

"I would go extreme with it. The argument will be that then it harms our clubs competing in Europe.

"But you only need to look at like Bodo/Glimt and progressing to like latter stages of the Champions League. They are able to do that with the restrictions that they've got in place.

"It's not going to happen overnight, it will take a bit of time and there might be a little bit of short-term pain, but you even see that we've got clubs going out of Europe right now with no restrictions in place.

"I think we all should strive to develop Scottish football as a whole and part of that is developing the national team and it's the only way I see any sort of difference being made."

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Scotland forward Lewis Morgan has joined his fourth Major League Soccer club after making the move to Toronto from San Diego.

The 29-year-old, who won the last of his seven caps in 2024, has previously played for Inter Miami and Red Bull New York.

"He has established himself as an impactful attacker in the Eastern Conference over the past several seasons," said Toronto FC general manager Jason Hernandez.

"His flexibility to play across multiple positions in the attack will be a valuable quality for our group moving forward."

Meanwhile, Torino have reached agreement with Everton to sign Scotland right-back Nathan Patterson, 24. (David Ornstein, external)

Tuesday's Scottish gossip

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Scotland star John McGinn says he was "desperate" to join Celtic in the summer of 2018 before eventually leaving Hibernian for Aston Villa.

Midfielder McGinn has established himself as a key Premier League figure for Villa, becoming club captain and winning the Europa League last season, leaving Celtic to rue what might have been.

The 31-year-old grew up as a Celtic supporter and his grandfather Jack was the club's chairman from 1986 to 1991.

Celtic had multiple bids turned down by Hibs and McGinn believes there was a degree of complacency in the way the Parkhead club approached the transfer.

"If he wasn't my grandpa and I wasn't a Celtic fan, I probably would be a Celtic player," McGinn told The Overlap podcast., external

"They felt because I was a Celtic fan, it would just happen. Nobody else would come in and Hibs would crumble.

"Hibs were amazing. They said 'We're not going to stand in your way, but they need to pay us what you're worth.'

"I gave them my word that I'd wait until they pay what I worth and it never got there. It was two or three million.

"They actually phoned my grandpa to try to influence me, but he had a good relationship with both sides. He trusted me and my agent and he said 'It's nothing to do with me, if you've got the money, pay the money.'

"It went on for months. I met Brendan [Rodgers]. I was desperate to go to Celtic."

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland at Planet Group Arena, Belgium

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You never know who's watching...

That's very much Josh Mulligan's approach as the midfielder hopes to impress in Hibernian's Conference League play-off against Gent.

The 23-year-old has been subject to interest from Italy and England, but the Scot had eyes closer to home in mind, in the form of new Scotland head coach, Sebastien Pocognoli.

While David Gray's Hibs hope to smash through the target they set on day one of pre-season - creating history by advancing to European league-phase football - the former Dundee player, who was called up to Steve Clarke's squad but has yet to make an appearance, is planning to catch Pocognoli's attention.

When it was highlighted putting out a side from the national team's boss' home country couldn't do any arm, Mulligan replied with a smile: "I know. He might be watching the game, you just never know who's watching.

"I don't know the new manager's thinking. I think everyone will be really looking to do well and try and get in that squad

"It's just what you do on the pitch. You'll get your rewards for what you do on the pitch."

What we do know, though, is Mulligan is not getting caught up in transfer speculation.

"I don't get too far ahead of myself," he added. "I always try and stick to what's going on on the pitch, I just don't want to get in the way of anything, really."

Scotland forward George Hirst, 27, is set to join Stoke City from Ipswich Town in a £10m deal. (Sun, external)

Former Scotland forward Ross McCormack, 40, has joined Giffnock North AAC. (Sun, external)

Thursday's Scottish gossip

Amy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland in Ghent, Belgium

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In the week Scotland appointed a Belgian head coach, Sebastien Pocognoli, it was of great use that Hibernian headed to Ghent in the Conference League.

It meant a few inquisitive Scottish journalists were allowed to throw some questions of the national team's new boss to one of his former contemporaries, Gent coach Rik De Mil.

The former goalkeeper was in charge of Charleroi when Pocognoli guided Union Saint-Gilloise to their first league title in 90 years.

"He's a very good coach, he did very well here in Union," De Mil said.

"He's a young coach and he's somebody who is really direct in his communication and close to his players.

"All the players like him and his communication - being honest and direct.

"He's developing his style, because in Union, it was his first real head coach role. There, it was a five-at-the-back and trying to be dominant, but at the same time, they could also drop really low, keep the clean sheet and be good on the counter-attack.

"But he developed that team into being a dominant team, playing higher up the pitch, so you saw that development with him here and then he learned new things in Monaco.

"As a young coach, you need to do different things to get that experience and I think he's at the level now to take this challenge in Scotland with the experience he has.

"So, I think you made a good choice... I think when you take a Belgian guy, it's always a good choice."

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Former Scotland forward James McFadden does not expect a "massively different" squad announced when Sebastien Pocognoli names his first selection as national head coach.

However, McFadden does believe three forwards that missed out on Steve Clarke's Scotland World Cup squad may come into consideration.

"I don't think it'll be massively different," McFadden told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"I understand that maybe Steve Clark would have looked at a Robbie Ure anyway, but I think that certainly moving to Sevilla, the season he's had or was having in Sweden would suggest that he'd be there.

"[Keiron] Bowie comes into the reckoning as well because it's a position we need strength.

"Does he then look at Ollie McBurnie, who had a fantastic season last season?"

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After Sebastien Pocognoli was unveiled as the new Scotland head coach at Hampden Park on Monday, Steven Thompson presents a special episode of the Scottish Football Podcast.

Thompson is joined by James McFadden and BBC Scotland's chief sports writer Tom English to discuss the appointment, first impressions and what might follow.

Listen and subscribe.

Sebastien Pocognoli outlines what he wants to see from his Scotland side after being appointed head coach.