Gordon Strachan, more than once, bemoaned that he couldn’t call upon the services of a world class player like Gareth Bale or Robert Lewandowski as Scotland manager. “We've got some good players there,” he said, repeating the message several times over the course of his four-year tenure as national team boss. “But world-class? No. I look at other squads and they are all in Champions League football. We have a problem there.” His comments didn’t fly with many. If Strachan needed a player like Bale or Lewandowski to succeed, what was he bringing to the table as manager? What grated even more was how Strachan continually made such remarks while simultaneously overlooking an exciting generation of young Scottish players. World class, they might not have been, but better than what Strachan picked over and over again? Almost certainly. This week marks a new cycle, though. A fresh start. Well, at least in terms of the players on the pitch. The Scottish FA showed a desperate lack of imagination by appointing Alex McLeish as Strachan’s successor last month, after failing in approaches for Michael O’Neill and Walter Smith, with chief executive Stewart Regan paying for such a farcical search for a new manager with his job. But while McLeish might be the stale embodiment of all that hinders the Scottish game as a whole, taking charge of the national team for a second stint, the squad picked last week for the upcoming friendlies against Costa Rica and Hungary suggest he is at least willing to recognise the green shoots of talent poking through the scorched earth.