The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
McLeish ‘monitoring situation’ of Blues’ Adams
Scotland boss Alex McLeish has said Birmingham forward Che Adams is on his radar as he prepares for the start of the 2020 European Championship qualifiers.
The 22-year-old, born in Leicester, was capped by England at under-20 level four years ago but qualifies for Scotland through the grandparent rule.
Adams has caught the eye this season after scoring 19 goals for the Blues in the English Championship.
McLeish, whose side begin their qualifying campaign with an away double-header against Kazakhstan and San Marino next month, said: “We have looked at Che.
“We are a small nation, we won’t leave any stone unturned and Che has been in good form.
“At the moment he wants to keep himself playing at club level, he’s had a good season, we have charted his progress, so we will keep that one open.
“We will leave it up to him just now and we will keep monitoring the situation. It was amicable discussions with him and his representative.
“I never spoke to Che personally but we have noticed his form and we think we can enhance his career and it would be up to him now.”
In a group that also contains Belgium, Russia and Cyprus, McLeish accepts the Scots have to hit the ground running in the away double-header.
The former Scotland defender said: “It is competition time. We have to get the competition heads on.
“We will put down some pointers for the players in terms of how we go about the campaign.
“We need a strategy and obviously there will be tactics from game to game.”
Amid controversy surrounding the standards of officials in Scotland, with reports claiming the Scottish Football Association is to consider introducing foreign referees to the Premiership, McLeish gave his backing to the whistlers.
He said: “The scrutiny now is absolutely intense. Give these guys a break, get behind them.”