SCOT GEMMILL says it is finally time for Jack Harper to do his talking on the pitch.
The Malaga attacker, who made the headlines after coming through the ranks at Real Madrid, makes his Scotland under-21 debut against Estonia tomorrow in Paisley.
Gemmill gave Harper, who was brought up in Spain, the nod as he has been in top form for Malaga’s reserve side Atletico Malagueno, who compete in the Spanish fourth tier.
“When you are a Scotsman playing for a massive club, it is a big story,” said Gemmill of Harper’s time in Madrid. “He did get a lot of media attention.
“I know he is much more keen for his football do the talking now – and that sounds good to me.”
Harper, who had an ill-fated six-month spell at Brighton, has scored 11 goals in 11 games for Malagueno, helping them to the top of their league.
His form prompted Gemmill to make a trip to southern Spain to run the rule over the striker.
“Since going back to Malaga in January, he has been in such good form,” explained Gemmill. “I was impressed, and pleased with everything he said.
“I’m sure being back with his family in a place he is familiar with will help. Just judging him on performances, it shows me he is doing something correct.”
With 10 uncapped players in the squad for The Paisley 2021 Stadium clash, Gemmill seeks to lay the foundations for a successful under-21 European Championships qualification campaign, which kicks off in September with clashes against Holland and England.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here