SPELLS abroad have not often been a holiday for Scottish footballers.

Many of the most recent career moves made by aeroplane have made for only flying visits; the laudable intention to pursue the "new challenge" tending to be surrendered at customs, with a return trip to the same old, same old coming after a matter of months. Those players who turned back will have felt their grievances were valid, since the language, culture or cuisine all proved to be too foreign, although homesickness has come to be regarded as such a Scottish affliction that perhaps the best treatment would be to crush tablet into one's pint of Export.

The handful of players who have chosen to leave the bosom of Scottish football this summer carry with them an imperative that their intentions will be treated cynically back home, then, with Barry Douglas raising eyebrows highest as his move to Lech Poznan was initially as hard to get your head around as the Polish alphabet. This was perhaps due in part to the outmoded perception that labour passes out of the Eastern Bloc, and of Polish football being an estuary for talent rather than a reservoir – although it is clear the switch from Dundee United proved attractive enough for Douglas to wade in.

A sense of wariness over the left-back decamping to Eastern Europe is also informed by the experience of former Hibernian striker Garry O'Connor, whose two spells in Russia were found to be lucrative but far from rewarding. Indeed, O'Connor could only have sunk lower during his time at Tom Tomsk last year had he hired Dante's agent and pursued a loan move to Purgatory.

That experience will have acted as a cautionary tale but Douglas is not alone in seeking to test the water elsewhere. Lee Robinson and Craig Barr have this summer joined FK Ostersunds in Sweden; Jordan Halsman and Kevin Rutkiewicz swapped Morton for clubs in Iceland and the USA respectively; Michael Higdon signed for NEC Nijmegen in the Netherlands; while Mark Fotheringham and Cillian Sheridan each opted for further spells abroad, at FC Luzern in Switzerland and APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus. History will insist that few of these moves will last long, although the past also offers direction as to how they might still be fulfilling.

"My whole life changed," says John Collins, recalling two seasons spent at Monaco in the 1990s. It is a statement which seems informed by the Ligue 1 title and a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League he earned while in the principality, yet it also has a deeper resonance. "I went with my wife and the two children we had at the time. We ended up fluent in French and we still have friends over there. Once you've moved abroad once, it gives you the confidence to go anywhere and know you'll adapt."

Poznan's pursuit of Douglas might have invited him to assume he had nothing to declare except his talent upon alighting in Poland, yet he must guard against becoming simply a tourist with knowledge of a few handy phrases. The 23-year-old has signed a two-year contract but he should also have negotiated a clause with himself to meet certain criteria: learning the language and discovering the peculiarities of the culture. "It's an opportunity for him, a challenge," says Collins. "There's a language barrier there to start with but the football will take care of itself. Football's football, no matter where you are."

That sentiment will probably have hit home as Poznan continue their pre-season programme, Douglas having since commented on Twitter that his physical exertions had left him "in bits".

It is a lament indigenous to Scottish footballers but Collins contends that players must also exercise a command of the local language if they are to truly settle far from home. The former Hibs manager explains why in plain English. "Life's not much fun if you can't have a laugh and a joke with your team-mates during sessions. If Barry Douglas doesn't do that he won't enjoy it," says Collins, whose own capacity to speak French also enabled him to serve for five months as manager of Belgian club Charleroi during the 2008/09 season.

"There will be times when you're low and missing home but that's normal. You've got to overcome that little period. When you cross that barrier, when you've learned the language and you're having a laugh and a joke, then it's a great feeling."

Douglas is going it alone for now but got engaged before agreeing to leave United, with his fiancee expected to join him in Poznan this month. It is a commitment which Collins is confident can help lead to a long, happy relationship with their new environment. "If you have family there it makes it easier because you've someone to go home to after training and practise the language with," he says. "It's a huge step, a huge change, but if you go about it in the right way, with a positive mindset, learn the language, integrate with the club and culture then you'll enjoy it."