Darren’s Scottish roots seem to make even more special in
Sir Alex’s eyes:
"Darren is only 19 and he has come through a period of
rehabilitation for his injuries for two years.
"What we are trying to do with Darren is give him the
encouragement that the future is good for him, that's why we
included him in the last two squads.”
Berti Vogts hasn’t named him in the full Scottish squad but
Fergie sees that as a good thing:
"But there is a long road for Darren yet in terms of
international football and I think he knows that.
"He's not in a hurry and neither should Berti be in a hurry.
"This boy has got wonderful talent but he needs developing.
He's missed two years of football and in that time he has
missed a lot of things - the development of his physique for
a start.
"When you're doing rehabilitation you are only concentrating
on the player's problems and he has had a few.
"But I'm hopeful that once he has matured and gets a proper
physique, Scotland will have a real player."
Berti clearly agrees:
"We have to be very, very careful with Darren Fletcher. He
is one of the biggest talents in the UK and did very well
against Basle.
"It would not be a problem for us to have Darren Fletcher in
the squad but he has played only one-and-a-half matches in
the last year.
"It would not be fair to the other players but we know him
very well."
However he is happy that Darren made his U21 debut against
Iceland, thus pledging his international future to Scotland: