John McGinn backs Lennon Miller to succeed with Scotland

John McGinn claims Lennon Miller may regret saying he could soon become Scotland's best player but believes the teenager will impress on his debut in the same way he did nine years ago.

Steve Clarke has called up the 18-year-old for the Nations League play-off games against Greece after an impressive season at Motherwell.

"I'm obviously not going to go in and be the best player there, but I believe I could maybe in a couple of months be the best player there," Miller said when he discovered he was in the squad.

McGinn was selected by Gordon Strachan in 2016 when playing in the Scottish Championship.

He said: “He’s probably thinking – why did I say that? But I said plenty of stupid things when I was coming through at St Mirren.

“But at the same time, they are not here to just make the numbers up.

“They are here to take our places if they, eventually, are better than the ones who are here.

“So, they need to have that confidence to come here and try to get a starting position and become a mainstay in the team for years to come.

“And he definitely has the ability to do that and so does James.”

Hearts youngster James Wilson has also been included by Clarke after netting six goals for the Tynecastle said this campaign.

“I remember that feeling when I first trained with the first team and feeling the change in tempo," added the Aston Villa captain.

“It’s good to have them here, they are both doing really well in the league and it’s our job as experienced players to help them feel comfortable, but not too comfortable at the same time.

“We knew it was coming sooner rather than later with Lennon. I watch Motherwell pretty regularly, and Paul (McGinn) always spoke about him highly from a young age.

“He has a good mentality, he is a good teammate, he’s very mature, so I’ve been really keen to play alongside him and see him this week in training.”

Scotland face a trip to Athens on Thursday before welcoming Greece to Hampden for Sunday's second-leg.

--

Hear the latest news on Clyde 1 on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.

• superscoreboard