Ryan Gauld insists Scotland starlet Ben Doak won’t be fazed by hype.
And the midfielder once dubbed ‘Baby Messi’ should know. Teenage sensation Doak lit up the Scots’ 1-0 Nations League victory over Croatia at Hampden on Friday night as he terrorised Manchester City full-back Josko Gvardiol. He set up John McGinn’s late winner, which gives Steve Clarke’s side an outside chance of reaching the quarter-finals going into tomorrow’s clash with Poland. The Liverpool winger, on loan at Middlesbrough, has reinvigorated the Tartan Army but Gauld insists he must ignore the external “noise”.
The Vancouver Whitecaps skipper, who made a huge impact off the bench at Hampden, was also tipped as the next big thing as a youngster when he moved from Dundee United to Sporting Lisbon. Now he’s convinced Doak is ready to deal with anything that’s thrown at him. Asked how Doak should cope with the hype, Gauld said: “You just shut it out. Don’t listen to it as much as possible. Just focus on football, play your game and listen to the people at your club.
“Ultimately, you just do what you can to get better. For me, it was just noise. I tried not to think too much about it. Obviously, I was young and in a different country (Portugal) so it was nice not to understand everything that was being said about me. I could just focus on football.
“Is Ben the type to handle the hype? Aye, absolutely. He’ll just take it in his stride. I’m sure he knows there’s a lot in his game that he can work on. But he’s got a big future ahead of him if he keeps up the way he has been playing so far.
“ I just leave him to it. He’s got his own career to worry about and a huge future. Just let him do his thing and I’m sure he’ll figure it out.”
Gauld was delighted to
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