Aston Villa captain John McGinn is proud to be turning up for Scotland duty as a Champions League quarter-finalist after recalling the pressure and discomfort he felt at being viewed as a lowly Scottish Championship player when he first broke into the squad, nine years ago.
The 30-year-old made his debut against Denmark in March 2016 but his early involvement with the national team was not universally welcomed, given he was in the midst of a two-year spell of playing in his country’s unheralded second tier with Hibernian.
Former Scotland international Charlie Adam – playing in the Premier League with Stoke at the time – gave several interviews throughout 2016 questioning why other less-established midfielders were being selected ahead of him by then manager Gordon Strachan, with McGinn inadvertently a target of his frustration.
Adam, who won his last cap in 2015, was quoted as saying: “Scotland see fit to go with players playing in the Championship in Scotland over players who are playing in the Premier League.”
As McGinn prepared for Thursday’s Nations League play-off first leg against Greece in Piraeus, he said: “I remember Charlie Adam doing an interview on my first day from Stoke’s training ground asking why there was Scottish Championship players getting called up, which wasn’t too helpful at the time.
“It was my first lunch at Mar Hall – I remember it – and all the experienced boys were getting right on me saying ‘look, you shouldn’t be in the squad’. So my session 30 minutes later wasn’t great, it was nerve-wracking.”
McGinn is now a seasoned Premier League operator with Villa, preparing for a Champions League quarter-final against Paris St Germain next month and one of the most senior members of Steve Clarke’s squad with 73 caps and 20 goals to his name.
The former St Mirren midfielder remains as humble as ever but takes “a lot of pride” from proving his doubters wrong and rising to prominence.
“I don’t think Charlie was meaning it at me individually or personally at the time, just the timing of it was a bit of a disaster,” McGinn said of Adam’s comments. “I remember going for lunch a wee bit nervous already.
“But you’ve always got people to try and prove wrong and you’ve got to show people that have a bit of faith in you that you deserve to be there and the decision’s justified and I think over time, I managed to show that.
“I think in Scotland we’re very quick. As soon as a Scotland squad comes out – and that’s something that’s not changed over the last 15 years – to go ‘why is he in it? He should be in it’. It does get a little bit draining rather than people just supporting the boys that are selected and all kind of being together on that.
“But certainly at that time, there was a lot of pressure on me and I felt it a little bit. But I remember that first game next to Broonie (Scott Brown), little nuggets of wisdom during the game, support before the game and you start to feel at home.
“It was a massive jump in my career at the time but it shows anyone now in the Scottish Championship and I hope that if that arises again, which is a possibility, that there’s not the same pressure put on them.”
