It is an oft-stated viewpoint that Scotland’s long-suffering supporters are worthy of another visit to a major championship. Now, Russell Martin believes the Scots have a team deserving of the same opportunity.
Martin is expected to take his place in the heart of Gordon Strachan’s defence for ’s crucial meeting with Georgia. Victory in Tbilisi is surely necessary if Scotland are to retain hopes of automatic progress to Euro 2016. Germany then visit Hampden Park on Monday.
“Scotland deserve to be at the finals,” Martin insisted. “We certainly wouldn’t show ourselves up. With the fans and everyone else feeling good about us at the moment, we deserve to be there and we have got ourselves in a great position to do that.
“Whenever we go abroad, you see how much it means to our fans. In my opinion, we will add to a tournament with what we have in our squad now. With the whole country behind us, it would be pretty special.”
Martin is amongst those well-placed to assess Scotland’s development under Strachan. Years of disappointment preceded Strachan’s appointment as manager; Scotland haven’t featured in a tournament proper since 1998 and, being blunt about it, have rarely looked like doing so. Now there is confidence, to the extent Martin hasn’t thought of booking a family holiday for next summer on the basis he plans to be on international duty in France.
“We’re a proper team,” the 29-year-old added. “We’re not about individuals, we don’t rely heavily on one person, we’re a proper team with togetherness.
“I think the people of Scotland enjoy watching us play, I’ve had loads of people in England giving us a lot of credit for what we’ve achieved recently in such a short space of time; the way we play and the way we approach games. Under this manager that won’t change so hopefully we can take it to a major tournament and show it there as well.
“I don’t think this manager will ever set up to just not lose a game, I don’t think that’s in his make-up. With the players we’ve got it suits us that we don’t play that way, we do go and attack teams and go to try to get a result wherever we go.”
Martin unsurprisingly batted aside the notion of Georgia offering a specific problem to Scotland. It was here that a Scottish team, then under Alex McLeish’s guidance, saw hopes of qualifying for the 2008 European Championships fatally wounded by defeat.
“It’s a different manager, different team, different squad, different style,” said the centre-back. “A different ethos if you like. I don’t think it’s a problem at all.”
Martin revealed his international team-mate Steven Naismith sought advice from him about the set-up at Norwich. Everton are believed to have received an £8m bid from Carrow Road on transfer deadline day for Naismith’s services but no deal was ultimately concluded.
“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get him in the end because he’d have been a fantastic signing for us,” Martin said. “Steven Whittaker and I were asked recently what we thought about him and we both sang his praises. He would have been an immense signing for us but it’s not happened and I’m sure he’ll do a great job when he goes back to Everton after this.”
