HIS players may not have so much as kicked a ball in a single training session since he was appointed Scotland manager last week, but Steve Clarke found himself on the defensive all the same when he announced the first squad of his reign at Hampden yesterday afternoon.
The presence of no fewer than four Kilmarnock men in his 27-strong pool for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Cyprus and Belgium next month raised eyebrows among many supporters and immediately left him open to accusations of cronyism.
At the same time, hopes that a raft of Premier League players who had previously retired or declared themselves unavailable for selection would come rushing back to the fray following the appointment of such a respected coach were instantly dashed.
It was an early taste of what life as national coach will be like for the man who has spent the last two seasons in relative obscurity at Rugby Park.
READ MORE: ‘Senior Scotland players felt pushed out’
Yet, these two matches have come at a difficult time for the 55-year-old. Players who had not previously featured under his predecessor have arranged to go on holiday and get married. Many others are injured at the end of long and draining 2018/19 campaign.
He had little difficulty, therefore, justifying the inclusions of Eamonn Brophy, Stuart Findlay, Stephen O’Donnell and Greg Taylor.
“People might look at it and say: ‘He’s just bringing those boys in as a thank you for what he did for him at Kilmarnock’,” said Clarke. “That’s not the case. Stephen with seven caps has been pretty much a fixture at right back. Stuart was in the last squad because his performances have been really, really good.
“I have no left backs left! Kieran Tierney and Barry Douglas are injured. Andy Robertson still has to play the (Champions League) final. He might not be fit. Young Greg has been probably the most consistent Scottish left back in the Premiership this year so deserves his call-up.
“I don’t have to run through my injury list I have up front. Young Eamonn is a goalscorer. He is enthusiastic, he will work hard and I know he would run through a brick wall for his country. Hopefully he will do the same for me. I look forward to seeing him in camp.”
Clarke needs Scotland to beat Cyprus at Hampden on Saturday week and then take something from their meeting with Belgium in Brussels the following Tuesday if they are to resurrect their fading hopes of reaching the Euro 2020 finals.
READ MORE: Shelley Kerr: I never thought I'd see a crowd like this in my lifetime
Even picking up a point in their second outing with opponents who are currently on top of the FIFA world rankings will be an achievement. Is Brophy going to strike fear into the heart of Jan Vertonghen? Is O’Donnell going to nullify the threat posed by Eden Hazard? It is hard to see a positive outcome.
But the new manager is optimistic he has enough at his disposal to record a victory on his debut and then pull off an upset in his second match.
“With a little more time and a little more attention I could maybe have found a bigger and better squad,” he said. “But this squad of players all want to be here and that’s the main thing for me. There’s enough talent in that squad to get results in both games, I’m convinced of that. Hopefully in the games you’ll see that.”
The former Newcastle United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa assistant and West Brom and Reading manager believes having some familiar faces in the Scotland squad will help him to settle into his new role.
“For the first camp I felt if I wanted to give my best on the back of a tough arduous season it was better for me to have people around me who know me and make me tick,” he said. “It makes it easier for me to put on training sessions and hopefully I can put on sessions the players enjoy.”
READ MORE: Perfect send-off as Scotland goes on the march with Shelley's army
Scotland could have a newly-crowned Champions League winner in their ranks by the time the games come around. Captain Andy Robertson is set to line up for Liverpool against Spurs in the final in Madrid on Saturday evening.
Asked about the prospect of his triumphing in Europe’s premier club competition, Clarke said: “It would be good. You want all your players to come in a positive frame of mind so for Andy it would be important he finishes the season with a trophy.
“If you look at the season in England, which I did not concentrate too much on because I was immersed in my job up here, Liverpool probably deserve to finish with a trophy. Tottenham will not like me for saying that. But Liverpool have been one of the outstanding teams this year and their race with Man City was something special to watch.”
There is also, of course, the prospect of Robertson picking up an injury this weekend and being ruled out of the forthcoming fixtures. But Clarke is confident that he will be able to join and indeed lead his countrymen for these crucial matches.
“The conversation I had with Andy when I first took this job seven or eight days ago was really positive,” he said. “If everyone has the same attitude as Andy going forward, we will be alright.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here