'Scotland fans can dream - it's our job to make it happen'

He had spats with Steven Gerrard. He saw more than his share of red cards. He was an explosive figure in the heart of Hibernian's defence.

Those fiery days are all part of the Ryan Porteous backstory, but these are changed days for the 25-year-old defender.

He has been a mainstay for Watford since joining the Hornets in January 2023 and with 10 assured appearances for the national team to his name, Porteous is maturing nicely and looks set to be a key player for Scotland at Euro 2024.

But when he reflects on his rollercoaster years in the hothouse of Scottish domestic football, is there anything that he misses?

“Not the referees, anyway. I think everybody can agree with me,” says Porteous, you sense partly in jest and partly really meaning it.

“It's hard because I did actually like all the referees in Scotland. It was one of those things that I had a target on my back and couldn't get rid of it. So coming down here was a fresh start.”

Life does seem calmer now. A defender clearly highly valued by Scotland manager Steve Clarke, Porteous also has a boss at Watford in Tom Cleverley looking out for him - and who sees the bigger picture.

With several Scotland players - including Aaron Hickey, Lewis Ferguson, Scott McTominay and Nathan Patterson - already suffering injuries before Euro 2024, Cleverley allowed Porteous to miss Watford’s final Championship match of the season away at Middlesbrough.

“Just to try and rest up for the Euros given the current injury crisis, if you want to call it that within the squad”, says Porteous in a special edition of The Scottish Football Podcast.

“It just shows you what kind of man-manager Tom's been since he has come in - that he really prioritises what we want as players and representing your national team on the biggest stage is definitely that.

“He's been terrific and he's been brilliant with me as well. He's obviously trying to do Scotland a favour as well.”

There may have been a slight bit of self-interest on Cleverley’s part, that said. With Porteous already on 14 yellow cards for the season - he might be calmer, but he's still no angel - another would have seen him suspended for three matches at the start of next campaign.

Nevertheless a golden month of rest and recuperation awaits for Porteous, which could be vital before the tournament begins.

Looking forward means looking back, and it is impossible to think about Scotland’s prospects in Germany without reliving the friendly defeats in March.

Porteous and Scotland played well for the majority of the match away to the Netherlands before it all fell apart in a 4-0 defeat.

Perhaps in his favour, Porteous was then rotated out for what turned out to be a hugely disappointing 1-0 home defeat by Northern Ireland.

It was an international double-header that left question marks over a dip in form for the national team, but Porteous believes the rigours of the qualifying campaign may have played a part.

“I think it could maybe be mental fatigue a little bit,” says Porteous.

“We had a fantastic start to the group. We started like a house on fire and we kept that going into the Spain game - even away from home, we got so close to taking something there. And then afterwards, we've hit a bit of a lull.

“[Against the Dutch] we had a game plan. It was slightly different to our game plans before against the top teams. And I think it worked for 65, 70 minutes.

"I think that's probably the biggest difference that we need to make to compete with these [top] teams - do it for 90 minutes.

“If we make a couple of changes, everyone's got to be on it and everyone's got to adjust fast.

"That was a tough one to deal with, because I think we played so well for large periods of the game so to come away with a heavy defeat was really difficult to take. The lads took it quite badly.

“I do still think there was a lot of positives from the friendlies we had against the top teams because we'll learn more out of that than we would if we played pot three, pot four teams.

"They're the stepping stones that we need to get to if we want to compete at major tournaments.”

Scotland play the opening match of Euro 2024 at Allianz Arena against hosts Germany on 14 June.

Porteous has his sights firmly set on being in that Scotland starting 11.

“It’s goosebump stuff really. The majority of the highlights of my career have been playing for Scotland and you just don't get that feeling with club football and I think everyone will probably say the same.

“There's so many people that deserve to play but hopefully I've put my name in the hat and I'll do as much as I can to try and get into that starting 11 come June.

“We've just got to try and take it game by game and get out of the group. If we get out of the group, we'll see what happens. But the fans can dream. That's their job to dream and it's our job to try and make that happen.”