Naismith tops Scotsman’s list of ten to watch

From that wrapper of fish and occasional source of legitimate news, The Scotsman:

The paper’s annual list of ten sports figures to watch in the year to come is headed by none other than Rangers and 1-cap Scotland midfielder Steven Naismith. Jonathan Coates gushes about Naismith’s well-known potential, saying “2008 should be the year when the man twice named Young Player of the Year becomes a grown-up fixture of the Scottish football scene.”

We’ll see if he’s all grown up into Scottish football just yet, but I have to agree (somewhat hopefully) that this should be the year for him. He had a couple of very solid matches for Rangers at the end of 2007, and looks quite ready to jump into the full National team more often than he has yet done. Time will tell if the new Scotland manager (who we might just want to start thinking about naming…) will feature him as at least a regular sub, which I personally think his club performances have merited.