Findlay Curtis has been recalled to the senior Scotland squad for Tuesday’s game against Slovenia at Hampden Park.
The 20-year-old has forced his way back into Sebastien Pocognoli’s plans following a dazzling display for the Under-21 side.
This is a timely reminder of his ability and why the attacker carries great value for Derek McInnes to unlock in the weeks and months ahead.
Expectations need to be managed with Curtis at Ibrox.
He’s not a senior player, nor should he be expected to carry most of the responsibility, week in, week out.
We saw glimpses of his quality last season and that was further underlined in his loan spell at Kilmarnock which was a productive spell for all parties.
He is back contributing to the team under Derek McInnes at Ibrox, and even his late cameo at Parkhead last month showed that he is not overawed on the big stage.
Curtis, as well as Hearts’ James Wilson, was initially named in the Scotland panel for the current Nations League games, but as the training camp developed, he dropped down into Tony Docherty’s squad.
The response has been the desired one.
Curtis has proven his worth and now he returns for Scotland’s final game of this international period.
He was a devastating force as Scotland swept aside Azerbaijan 5-2 at Rugby Park in the U21 European Championship qualifier last week, recording four assists.
As detailed by STV Sport, Pocognoli said of his recall:
“Regarding what we try to build as a connection with the Under 21 group, we selected Findlay because he served to be here.
“But he needed playing time and the fact that Tony (Docherty) is playing a similar style of play to us, it’s a good window for him to show it live and he did fantastically well against Azerbaijan.
“It was clear for us that we want to make this bridge between the two groups, to show also that when you do well, you come back, and it is also a signal for the rest of the group.”
That augurs well for Findlay Curtis, and hopefully Rangers can be the main benedficiary of further progress as we prepare for a busy period of domestic football in the coming weeks.
