Gordon Strachan has backed the Scottish FA's decision to hand Steve Clarke a new four-year deal - and the timing of it.
The Scotland manager signed a new long-term contract ahead of the World Cup, with many questioning the wisdom of that ahead of this summer's finals starting given a poor performance could then leave them with a dilemma.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell came out in defence of the decision and backed Clarke to the hilt.
Strachan has now explained why he is also a fan of it. The former Scotland boss says it takes away uncertainty over the manager's future heading into the World Cup, meaning there will not be the distraction of constantly being asked questions about it.
Asked if he was surprised by the timing of the deal, he said: "No, do it now. Do it now so you don't have to spend a lot of your time answering questions. Do it right now; it's out the way and nobody has to answer a question.
"You don't have to evade questions and you don't be nervous when that question comes up as a manager. You can purely - and the press can only - concentrate on the game itself and the players. I think it's a great time to do it."
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Scotland's first game at the World Cup since 1998 is against Haiti in the early hours of this Sunday morning.
There were already fears around whether the Caribbean country could be a dark horse before they thumped New Zealand and pushed Peru close in their two warm-up games.
Strachan though is confident Scotland can get a result and is even expecting the players to do it without too many jitters.
Asked if there is a danger of Haiti being underestimated, he said: "Well, I think you’ll only really relax when you get two-nothing up. And I think they’ll win two-nothing. How they’ll get about it, I don't know, but I think they'll do that and I hope it's more because goal difference will be important.
"But the physical side of their team is basically the two center-halves and two strikers. Rest of it is decent. Technically they're decent, but they're not great."
Strachan was speaking at Grosvenor Casino Glasgow (Merchant City) on 6th June as part of Grosvenor’s Scotland World Cup Preview Night. Strachan will be joined by Kris Boyd in Aberdeen as part of their second show on 11th June; tickets are on offer for a limited time and can be purchased here.
