chester city striker oliver mcburnie has vowed to prove scotland's under 19s don't need real madrid superkid jack harper by firing ricky sbragia's youngsters to a winning start in their uefa elite round against hosts austria on thursday sbragia's decision to omit the promising bernabeu talent for the tournament has caused uproar, mixed with bemusement, after the former sunderland boss' comments about harper not being physically strong enough harper's replacement does not have zinedine zidane as a coach or the luxury of a five year deal with real in fact, mcburnie is currently on loan from bradford city at football conference mid table outfit chester city on loan chesterfield striker is ready to step up for scotland under 19s against austria on thursday  mcburnie in action for scotland under 19s against holland under 19s during an international challenge match  however, the 18 year old is in agreement with sbragia that scotland need to be physical in their three games which starts on thursday in vienna against hosts austria, before facing italy on saturday and croatia next week and he's had plenty of practice playing for chester against the likes of alfreton town, dartford and lincoln city's grizzled defenders mcburnie said: 'obviously, jack hasn't made the squad, but it's good to know it' s not just about reputations if they do come and watch you and you do well then you get the rewards for that 'the boys are confident and we know we have quality in this team and an ability to hurt the opposition if we stick to the game plan and play how we know we can play we've got a chance it's tough against the hosts, italy and croatia for that matter but we want to test ourselves against the best 'they're all good sides and hopefully we can go out there and prove a point they're going to be big and powerful sides but we see ourselves in that bracket as well hopefully we can cope with that and let our football do the talking real madrid youngster jack harper has been left out of the latest scotland under 19 squad  mcburnie says that he has had to toughen up playing against conference opposition  'you have to grow up fast and it's very different to bradford, although chester like to try and play a bit to be fair in the conference it's tough to play football on some of the pitches against some of the teams it's a great learning experience and just adds to my game the defenders have definitely tried to rough me up 'the worst was at lincoln away both of their centre backs were about 6ft 6in and i was playing up front on my own that was tough but we got through and won, so i enjoy testing myself against bigger and stronger players it's a different experience' but the harper issue does bring back memories of a depressingly frank admission from billy stark, then scotland under 21 boss, in june 2009 a month earlier, xavi and iniesta had passed manchester united to death during the 2009 champions league final at rome's stadio olimpico recalling a community coaching forum at hampden 24 hours before, stark said: 'i was asked whether iniesta and xavi would have flourished and come through the scottish system 'it's hard to say because you're looking at two different cultures but the answer is   probably not the spanish place an emphasis on sheer technique and movement our game is based more on power and pace so there's an argument that they wouldn't have come through in this country to become the players they are now scotland under 19s manager ricky sbragia claimed harper is not big enough physically  harper is currently midway through a five year deal with real madrid and is tipped to have a big future  'but the spanish approach is working for them and it deserves to be copied,' he added former scotland manager craig brown has urged caution in the rush to condemn the under fire sbragia 'i've the greatest of admiration for ricky as a man and a coach,' said the 74 year old 'my friend archie knox speaks highly of him and he's also worked under sir alex ferguson at manchester united so i'd like to hear more on the context of the words spoken by him (about jack harper) 'but i would say this: people are saying this young lad is a real madrid player he's not; he's never played for real madrid i was a rangers signing but i never played for rangers 'real madrid will have hundreds of kids in their system i'm not for a minute saying jack harper is not a good player i haven't seen him so i don't know former scotland boss craig brown (second right) revealed his admiration for under 19 coach sbragia  'but i think people get hypnotised by the name real madrid there's a frenzy going on but if (the same player) played for another club would there be the same impact?' brown admitted it is an occupational hazard of a national youth selector to end up looking foolish 'you can't get every player right,' he said 'here's my example: when i was scotland under 21 manager, i got a phone call from the late alex wright, manager of dumbarton, saying he had a good player for me it was owen coyle, and he was good, but i didn't think he was as good as kevin gallacher and gordon durie 'i told alex the only reason i would be picking owen would be solely to prevent ireland getting him – and that would be unfair he would have been a bench player for scotland 'so the irish picked him instead and our next game was against ireland at easter road my over age centre half that day was alex mcleish and owen knocked the ball past alex and stuck it in the roof of his net 'i remember thinking 'i've messed up here' but we ended up winning 4 1 and i think durie scored three but you can get egg on your face…'
oliver mcburnie jack harper uefa elite round ricky sbragia's thursday scotland under 19s harper chesterfield austria
scotland under 19s play austria on thursday as part of uefa elite round  real madrid teen jack harper was omitted from ricky sbragia's squad  chesterfield striker oliver mcburnie is ready to step in for harper 