Has Gemmill missed the boat with Anderson?

TIME will tell, but it is difficult to feel terribly confident about Scotland Under-21s coach Scot Gemmill convincing Newcastle United midfielder Elliot Anderson to remain in dark blue amid reports of him considering a switch to England.

Anderson, a 19-year-old who hails from Whitley Bay, has clearly had such crises of identity before. He started off with Scotland at youth level, played for the English Under-19s and jumped back across the divide recently.

Now he has broken into Eddie Howe’s first-team squad at St James’ Park, though, the word is that he is wondering whether the Three Lions might be a better bet than the Lion Rampant at a time when interest in our Under21 side is surely at an all-time low.

The story was broken by a prominent English broadsheet earlier in the week.

‘I didn’t know about that,’ said Gemmill when asked about Anderson (above), who pulled out of the current double-header of friendlies with Northern Ireland through injury. ‘I’ll look into it.’

Doesn’t exactly breed confidence in this being a set-up with its finger on the pulse, does it? Indeed, it sounds worryingly like Gemmill is only getting round to thinking about shutting the stable door when the horse is halfway down the final furlong.