Dundee United boss Jackie McNamara believes that the current crop of promising Scottish youngsters can help propel the country to their first major finals since 1998.
The manager was part of the Scotland squad at that World Cup in France 15 years ago and he is hoping when the Euro Championships take place in the same country again in 2016, we will be one of the participants.
Scotland, of course, have enjoyed a minor renaissance already under the stewardship of manager Gordon Strachan with the national side posting another morale-boosting win in their last World Cup qualifying game against Croatia on Tuesday night at Hampden.
Those green shoots of recovery have given McNamara hope for the future as well as the emergence of talented Scottish kids, none more so than at his own club.
Stuart Armstrong and Andy Robertson played for the national Under-21s this week while teenage first-team regulars Ryan Gauld and John Souttar, along with Darren Petrie and Aidan Connolly, were with the Under-19 squad that secured their place in the UEFA European Championship elite round following a 1-1 draw with Germany.
McNamara said: “We are always hopeful that the new generation of players are going to get Scotland back to major finals again.
“I think there was a lot of talk before about the generation of James McFadden and that lot and there was a lot of pressure put on them to produce.”
“That came at the tail end of my international career but I’m convinced we have a good group of players coming through.
“If you look through history then there are always different eras when a nucleus of good young players emerge. If you look at Belgium just now, they are a great example of that.
He added: “They have come through together. Spain had it before that and before then it was France, when all those terrific players emerged at the same time. So hopefully we can have a good crop of kids coming through.
“Just to qualify for a major finals would be great. It would be nice to reach France in 2016, and it would maybe be fitting since our last tournament was in France in 1998.
“It was certainly one of the highlights of my career to be there. And we are on the right track. I enjoy watching Scotland at the moment. They are trying to play football and not only that they are trying to play without fear.
“They are wanting to express themselves and take the game to the opposition and they seem to be doing that. So I feel we are on the right road.”
While Gauld and Souttar have attracted the majority of headlines this season with fevered speculation linking them to a host of other clubs, the progress of Andy Robertson has been nothing less than meteoric.
The 19-year-old summer signing from Queen’s Park has been outstanding in what is his first season as a full-time player with his performances already earning him an extended contract with United and being singled out for special praise from Strachan.
And McNamara believes if Robertson can continue to progress, then the full-back possesses all the necessary attributes to go on and become a full international.
The manager said: “I’m glad he’s signed a new deal and he’s been rewarded for his great start at Dundee United. He’s been put into the Under-21 side and then there was Gordon Strachan talking about him at the weekend.
“That’s no surprise to me that Gordon is speaking well about him because he is a terrific player. He does the simple things well, he is a very focused young guy and I’m so delighted for him, the way it has gone for him recently.
“Is he future Scotland material? Yes I think so. I think he’s got a great chance. If you speak to him yourself he is level headed. He doesn’t get caught up thinking about things, he just likes to get on with it and let his ability do the talking.
“It’s a good thing to have in football. He never dwells on stuff, he takes everything in his stride.
“It’s down to Gordon if and when he calls him up. He will have them all watched and he will know what he is looking for but Andrew’s definitely in the category as one for the future.”