Celtic are right to fast track Karamoko Dembele into senior football, says Ruud Gullit

Dembele, who was handed his debut in Celtic's Under-20 team this week, has become an overnight YouTube sensation and Gullit admits he is one of the player's new army of admirers.

The Dutchman, who became the time the youngest player in the history of the Eredivisie when he made his debut for HFC Harlem at the age of 16, subscribes to the old adage that when you are good enough, you are old enough.

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"Scotland don’t have many great players at the moment but they so have a new 13-year-old, who looks pretty special," said Gullit, in Kingsbarns yesterday to participate in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. “I saw him playing on YouTube. What a player. He is exceptionally good and left-footed as well.

“I was also very young too when I made my first team debut," he added. "When I was 14, I was playing with the Under-18s so that was quite a jump as well.

“I was bigger and stronger though, so that was different. This kid is still only small but this will help him get a physical presence. He has to deal with that so it could be an advantage for him to play with older players. I just love to see players like that but while this is great experience we also have to give him time.”

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While the Dembele story has stolen a few headlines, the big game this week is Scotland's World Cup qualifying meeting with Lithuania on Saturday night. Scotland, just like Gullit's Netherlands missed out on Euro 2016 despite 24 teams taking part, but take on the Lithuanians in a confident frame of mind after their 5-1 win in Malta back in September. Rivals England may be the bookmakers' favourites, but they are in a fair amount of disarray, with the reign of Sam Allardyce lasting just one match before he was forced to step down after being the victim of a newspaper sting.

While Gareth Southgate has been appointed interim manager for the four games England will play until the end of the year - including the meeting with Scotland at Wembley in November - Gullit reckons only one England coach fits the bill when it comes to their next permanent manager and it is a candidate from left field. Terry Venables is 73 now and the only place he has managed in the last decade or so is a hotel in Alicante, but Gullit feels the former coach of Barcelona is the only Englishman out there who has worked with the biggest names in world football. The likes of Eddie Howe, Alan Pardew and Southgate certainly haven't.

"The most difficult thing England have to face at the moment is that they always want an English coach," said Gullit. "Well, the top six or seven teams in England, they don’t have an English coach there. And the coaches who are available have never, ever played Champions League.

"They have never, ever competed for the Premier League title, under the pressure that this brings," he added. "And that makes it difficult for England because, if you have players who have played at the Champions League level and challenged for the title, it’s hard for a manager from a lower level to manage them. It’s one thing to motivate players not to be relegated, that’s one kind of pressure. To motivate players for the big prizes, that’s something different.

"So, for that reason, the only manager who can do it, for me, as an English coach, is Terry Venables. For me, he is the only English manager with the experience at that level. He’s the last English manager who did that, the last English coach who could back up what he was saying to the players. He also had the charisma. But he hasn’t worked for a long time. Of course the coaches who are in England now will say 'ahh... Ruud Gullit, he is talking bulls****'. But they haven't done that job, being at a top six club, and the Champions League."

While England have no managers playing in the top six clubs in England, the problem for Scotland these days is simply that they have no players there. The nearest we have now reside at mid-table outfits, like Darren Fletcher at West Brom, James McArthur at Crystal Palace and Robert Snodgrass and Andy Robertson at Hull. Gullit feels Scotland are still over-matched, even if there will be no defeatism in the Scotland camp.

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"Gordon's frustration will be that he knows what it requires to qualify but the players can't do it because they haven't been there," said Gullit. "It is not their fault. Strachan does the best he can do with the players he has.

"If Scotland are going to improve, they need their best players to be performing in the English Premier League, getting more experience and playing at the highest level," he added. "I know Gordon Strachan pretty well, I know he’s good at getting the best out of players. But it hasn’t been enough.

"You have to believe in it, if you allow them [England] to play then it is going to be difficult. You need to fight your battles one against one, and you have to win them. But I think Gordon is in a good position with Scotland, because he has nothing to lose."