THE WORLD Cup is all about moments. Eruptions of spontaneous joy which lift the spirits of a frazzled nation.
There was no joy around Scotland, a team whose early elimination prompted manager Steve Clarke to rip up a four year contract and resign in the early hours of Sunday morning.
An expanded 48 team format made it easier for unfancied nations to make history. In theory at least.
Cape Verde, the third smallest nation to reach the World Cup finals, sealed a place in the last 32 against Lionel Messi’s Argentina after repelling European champions Spain and finishing second in their group.
In South Africa they held pyjama parties on the streets of Soweto after beating South Korea to reach the knock out stages for the first time ever.
In Ecuador they wait until the team actually achieve something at the World Cup before declaring a public holiday, President Daniel Noboa granting his people a day of celebration when the national side came from behind against Germany to secure a place in the knock-out stages for the first time in 20 years.
Read more:
- Scotland officially eliminated from World Cup at group stage after lengthy wait
- Clarke quits Scotland job as he pens open letter after World Cup exit
Scotland? Serial losers at this level the the 2026 World Cup will be remembered as another unfulfilling experience for a team resigned to one lingering death after another at major tournaments.
The Scottish FA take plenty of stick, much of it deserved. The one thing they can’t be accused of is skimping or scraping in their efforts to give the manager and his players every opportunity to succeed in America.
Flying in the face of public opinion they gave Clarke a new four year contract when it made more sense to hold fire. They set aside a third of the £10million World Cup bounty for the player bonus pool. They laid on a week of warm weather training in Fort Lauderdale to acclimatise to the conditions and sourced their own training and hotel facilities during trip after trip to the USA.
Contrast that with Iran. Currently in conflict with the United States and Israel the Islamic Republic’s training base was switched from Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico for their own safety before the conflict began. They faced crippling travel restrictions from day one, with the squad only allowed to fly to Los Angeles for the first two games hours before the match and ordered to leave again the same day.
Despite all the mayhem the Iranians were only robbed of a guaranteed place in the last 32 by the narrowest of offside calls.
The longest serving Scotland manager of all time Steve Clarke’s perceived tactical caution drove supporters to distraction. So much so that, after that 3-0 defeat to Brazil, things outwith his control were pinned at his door anyway.
When Scott McKenna messed up against Brazil it was Clarke’s fault for picking him in the first place. When players like Scott McTominay and John McGinn failed to turn up he was failing to play to their strengths or put them in the right positions.
By the end he reached the point Gareth Southgate reached with England before he quit as well. While things were better than before the football was dull and the team was failing to live up to increased expectations.
Before the finals Clarke spoke of his desire to enjoy the World Cup more than either of the last two Euros.
His impatience with on-the-whistle post match broadcast interviews suggested that he didn’t really enjoy the experience very much at all.
Strip it down and beating Haiti while losing to Morocco and Brazil was pretty much what people expected. A par round.
The absence of moments to remember was the real issue. While others seized the day Scotland’s football was a tough, joyless watch.
An SFA decision to give Clarke a four year contract before the World Cup was always contentious but based on the view that he had enough credits in the bank. After seven years in charge everyone knows what familiarity breeds and elimination from the World Cup used up the last few credits.
Faced by an online bloodlust, Croatia’s win over Ghana sealed Scotland’s fate and triggered emotional meetings with staff and players at the team’s Charlotte hotel to inform them of his decision to go.
The Scottish FA have just appointed Craig Mulholland as Chief Football Officer and now have another key appointment to fill.
During Clarke’s tenure the SFA quadrupled their turnover and that was just one of the reasons he was granted the new deal. Another was his desire to work with Mullholland to address the failure of player development in Scottish football.
The national team has goalkeepers who barely play for their clubs, ageing central defenders nowhere near the level needed and a collection of Championship level strikers who would struggle to get a game in the bottom half of the English Premier League.
A team is only as strong as its weakest links and those who point to players performing at a high level for top clubs in Italy and England ignore the fact that too many of the squad are not at the level required for a World Cup.
Clarke did his best to maximise what he had and, while that failed to deliver results at tournaments, the people who wanted him gone should be careful what they wish for. While the likes of an Ange Postecoglou would be a popular, ambitious choice with a style of football pleasing on the eye the Aussie commands a bigger wage than the SFA are willing to pay and his time in charge of Celtic offered an insight into the issues which make the job of future Scotland managers so difficult.
The current team are ageing and while the outgoing boss has implored them to play on some will inevitably bring their international careers to a close rather than start all over with a new boss. At some point the likes of Andy Robertson and McGinn will go and there is hardly a queue of international class players forming an orderly queue down the steps of Hampden.
For players under 21 the path to first team football is now blocked by English jobbers and overseas journeymen. While club co-operation agreements should make things better, a crackdown on the number of work permits handed out to cut-price overseas players should be next on the list. Assuming that the powerful clubs running the game to suit their their own self interest allow it.
It’s not just a question of players. Thirteen managers have won the English league three times or more and five of them were Scots. George Ramsey, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson were all serial winners and, surveying the current crop of Scottish managers, the Largs mafia is now firing rounds with a water pistol.
The obvious candidate Derek McInnes has already gone to Rangers and, for the first time since Berti Vogts, an overseas manager seems as likely as not. The successor to Steve Clarke will know that he is following a Scotland manager who was very good at leading the team to tournaments.
And not so good when he got there
