| Tom Boyd has urged the Scotland players who have made the trip to Japan to prove the doubters wrong and show they are good enough to represent their country. Some pundits have suggested that the friendly in Yokohama has been devalued after 10 players dropped out through injury. This has meant that manager boss George Burley will be handing international debuts to a number of players. Boyd won 72 caps, a place in the Hall of Fame and captained his country. But he points out that he was only given his big break, in a European Championship qualifier against Romania back in 1990, as a result of a similarly depleted squad. Looking back Boyd said: "It's another Scotland game, it's an international and it's a cap for some of the boys. For other lads, it's an opportunity. When I just started out, it was a competitive game, but I got my chance because there were seven or eight call-offs. I took advantage of that and went on to have a successful Scotland career. It's an opportunity for some of these boys to try to impress the manager with another campaign coming up because we certainly desperately need quality players for Scotland just now." Burley travelled to Japan with a much changed squad to that he originally announced for the trip but Boyd is struggling to understand what the fuss surrounding the withdrawals for this game is all about. He said: "It's nothing new. If you look back in the history of Scottish football at the number of call-offs, it probably averages at seven or eight in every game. George certainly would want to risk anyone with knocks and niggles going to Japan and coming back with something more serious and the club managers wouldn't want that either." The former Celtic and Motherwell defender also backed the decision to rely on Burley after Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup. He said: "I think the problem in the current climate is that we sack managers far too quickly and far too often. Alex Ferguson wouldn't be in a job and half as successful as he has been if he hadn't been given time down in Manchester. Unfortunately for George he can't buy players but he is out in Japan trying to discover new players and hopefully some of them will push through." | |
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