John McGinn has challenged Lennon Miller to nab his spot in the heart of Scotland's midfield.
Motherwell teen Miller raised eyebrows ahead of joining up with his first senior squad when he said "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." With coach John Carver saying the comments were "a mistake".
However McGinn doesn't see it that way, and believes the healthy competition can only be a good thing for the squad ahead of a crucial Nations League playoff with Greece.
He said: “He was probably thinking, why did I say that? But I said plenty of stupid things when I was coming through at St Mirren. At the same time, they're not here to make the numbers up, they're here to take our places if eventually they're better than the ones that are here and we no longer get called up.
“So they need to have that confidence, they need to come here and not just make the numbers up, come here and try and get a starting position and then become a mainstay for years to come. He definitely has the ability to do so and so does James (Wilson). I watch Motherwell pretty regularly and my brother Paul always spoke about him highly.
“But not only that, his mentality, he's a good team-mate, very mature. So obviously I've been really keen to play alongside him and see him this week in training. Even sat at lunch there, he's a quiet guy but desperate to succeed and work hard.”
Denmark's Christian Eriksen (10) and Scotland's John McGinn
McGinn in action during the early days of his Scotland career (Image: SNS Group)
Vice captain McGinn remembers feeling out of his depth when he first stepped up to the Scotland top team in 2016 as a Championship player with Hibs - thanks in no small part to a jibe from Charlie Adam.
That’s why he’s spent time this week making sure Miller and Wilson feel at home. He said: “I remember Charlie Adam doing an interview from Stoke's training ground asking why there was Scottish Championship players getting called up which wasn't too helpful at the time!
“All the experienced boys were getting right on me saying 'look, you shouldn't be in the squad’! I don't think he was meaning it at me personally at the time. Just the timing of it was a bit of a disaster.
“I remember going back to my room and you think to yourself 'I cannae compete at this level'. But as the sessions go on, as you get more experienced, you get more comfortable and you start to express yourself a bit more.
“I'll always be grateful to Gordon Strachan for giving me that opportunity. I was always pretty nervous, starstruck but once I got a couple of sessions under my belt I was chatting their ear off. I know how it feels but the boys, there's no egos in there, they know how to welcome new team-mates and if they get too confident, too comfortable it's our job as older players to go 'right, no come on, too far'.
“I’ve done that with Ben (Doak) a couple of times but that's his character! It's nice, it's obviously really good to see those boys having a big impact in the Scottish Premiership this year and it's good to see.”