Upping sticks is something Gary Mackay-Steven has become accustomed to since he was a teenager. The distances have varied, the direction sometimes north or south, but the culture shocks have always been something he has embraced despite his rural upbringing in the north of Scotland.



Born in Thurso, he moved to Dingwall aged 15 before passing through the staging posts of Liverpool, Fulham, Airdrie, Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen. He has gone where his talent has taken him, and now it has led him to the glitz of New York City.



Mackay-Steven has seemed destined for big things at various points in his career, especially when he arrived at Celtic from Dundee United on deadline day in February 2015 with his close friend Stuart Armstrong. With a jinking, dribbling style and a running motion akin to a wind-up toy, he has the pace to eliminate players as if they aren’t there — on his day.



It’s that qualifier which is important. Without it, he would...