Fulham new boy Ross McCormack can handle any expectations

Rangers fans will look back at McCormack’s £11 million price tag with frustration.

In the summer of 2006 I played my part in moving Ross McCormack out of Rangers.

Then working as an agent, I helped him get fixed up at Motherwell after Paul Le Guen told my client he could go because he wasn’t in his plans.

Eight years on and with Ross an £11m new arrival at Fulham, the Frenchman’s decision is a tough one for fans to get their heads round. Rangers could certainly do with that kind of financial windfall right now.

The fact is from Motherwell to Cardiff City to Leeds United and now the big-spending Londoners, Ross who I stopped looking after when I became Chief Executive of the SFA is a footballer on the upgrade.

Always ambitious, he was a frustrated young man well before the Frenchman arrived at Ibrox.

Having scored a vital goal in the Champions League game away to Porto in 2005, he simply could not understand why he wasn’t given an extended run in the first team.

As part of my job, I advised Ross to be patient because his chance would come. And when that line of reason wasn’t enough I held discussions with Alex McLeish, Le Guen’s predecessor, on the subject.

Alex acknowledged the point I was making but made it clear that he would continue to pick the team as he saw fit. If the player was unhappy and wanted to move on, he said, that would be fine.

He was being fair. He appreciated just how difficult it can be for young Scots to break through into the side after coming through the youth systems at either Rangers or Celtic.

The pressures to win at both clubs are enormous and that makes it hard for kids who need to finish off their development as players.

It works against them and in the cases of young guys such as Ross, David Marshall and Charlie Adam, it also works against the clubs themselves. For often the answer is to go down in order to then come back up.

That was certainly the case with Ross who followed a path from Fir Park to Cardiff to Leeds and now to Fulham.

He has improved along the way to the point where I believe he can handle any expectations placed upon him, which is good news from a Scotland point of view.

Big-money transfers change people’s perspectives of players. They look for more from them. That can be a problem but, in the case of Ross, I think it will help.

He will accept that he is now a top, top-level player and grow even more as a footballer. He is already a Scotland internationalist but I think we will see Gordon Strachan giving him more and more opportunities.

And with the likes of Robert Snodgrass having also joined Hull City for £7m this summer there is a feeling this is a squad which is developing and growing in stature all the while.

With an £11m price tag, Ross will certainly be asked to deliver at club level. With Fulham relegated to the Championship at the end of last season that should not be a problem.

He will be playing at a level he is very comfortable at. At a level in which he knows he can excel. Whether he can go even higher only time would tell but it would be a brave man who bets against it happening.