STEVE Clarke has revealed he plans to pick the brains of previous Scotland managers including immediate predecessor Alex McLeish.

And the 55-year-old also intends to chat with Gareth Southgate, the England had coach, about what it takes to be successful in international football.

Clarke has already spoken on the phone with some of the great and good in the game and he intends to gather as much information as possible from those in the know after the upcoming European Championship double-header with Cyprus and Belgium.

Clarke said: "I’ve had some great offers, although I spoke to Kenny Dalglish straight away and his first word were ‘What have you done?”

“Just before I did the press conference I got a little message from Alex McLeish, I've heard from Michael O’Neill, a lot of people I want to speak to over the coming weeks and months.

“After this first camp, though. I'm going to blunder my way through this one myself.

“But Michael wants to have a chat, I'd like to sit down at some stage with Walter Smith, who did very well with the national team, I’ll speak to Alex - he's a great guy - and Gordon Strachan.

“I also know Dan Ashworth (former English FA director of eleite development), who’s just left the England set-up to go to Brighton, and I’ll sit down with him and find out what they did with the English team, because their young sides are doing fantastically well, they've got a great pathway.

“I'll try to get a chat with Gareth as well, I know him well, and try to steal some of his secrets because his team have also done pretty well recently."