If Steve Clarke’s Scotland regime is to spiral beyond the point of no return, it will do so on the manager’s own terms. Seven of the players who started the now infamous defeat by Hungary – the performance offended Scottish fans, not the result – did likewise as Poland visited Hampden Park on Nations League business. The figure would be higher, but for the international retirement of Callum McGregor and the decision of Ché Adams to remain with Torino for reasons that remain a matter of considerable discussion.
Fans who want Clarke to rip it up and start again ignore two core facts. The manager is understandably loyal to a group of players who have generally served him well. There is also no batch of fresh talent waiting in the wings, a matter that will become perfectly obvious to Clarke’s eventual successor.
Scottish football continues to turn blind eyes shamefully to its inability to produce and develop first-team players to a point that will properly assist the national team to grow. Cheerleaders lap up the weekly dross served by the Scottish top flight.
Clarke got the absolute most out of what was available to him for so long; it may simply be the case that his Scotland team peaked somewhere along the qualification road to Euro 2024. When your luck is out, your luck is out; eight minutes of Scottish time against the Poles was largely on account of faulty video assistant referee equipment. Poland scored their winner in the seventh of them.
Against this grim backdrop, it is logical that the Tartan Army cling to green shoots. Ben Doak impressed from the bench in the wounding loss, the teenager’s pace and purpose no shock to anybody who has watched him at youth level.
Doak’s combination play with Anthony Ralston was of clear benefit to the much (and unfairly) maligned Celtic full-back. Doak has a strong case to start when Scotland take on Portugal in Lisbon on Sunday but there must be appreciation of where his career stands.
The 18-year-old remains underexposed to first-team football. A loan to Middlesbrough may not signal the beginning of the end for his first-team aspirations at Liverpool. Still, Arne Slot plainly thinks Doak has to develop considerably before he can reach the status many in Scotland seem to believe he is at already.
“He is a hungry individual,” said the Scotland captain, Andy Robertson, of Doak last week. “He is very determined to do the best for himself and for the team, and that is important. He is exciting but we have to be careful. He is a young player. He needs to gain experience. He needs to work on things. He knows that.
“The quality that he does have is very good. I think he will have a fantastic career at whatever level that may be. He will have a good international career, but it is important that we are patient with him. It is important that we see him grow. That is the key thing. Sometimes we get on top of young players far too quickly.”
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Ryan Gauld, once of “Mini Messi” fame, knows all about that. Gauld has been drafted back into the Scotland setup at the age of 28. Gauld, who left Dundee United for Sporting at 18, may revel in a return to the Portuguese capital. He earns rave reviews for his performances at Vancouver Whitecaps; those who decry Major League Soccer ignore the evidence that players throughout that domain cope perfectly well with international football. Gauld’s elegance sets him apart from his Scottish peers but it feels as if he has to somehow prove he can be more than a luxury player.
Grant Hanley’s inexplicable error in those dying embers of the Poland clash, which handed the visitors a match-winning penalty, means it would look bizarre if the centre-half is picked to face Cristiano Ronaldo and co.
John Souttar can slot in at right centre-back. Beyond that, Clarke is glaringly short of alternatives. Options to replace Lyndon Dykes at centre-forward are Lawrence Shankland, who has been awful for Hearts this season, and the untried Tommy Conway.
Doak and Gauld are the two forward-thinking players who not only have a cause to be given a chance but would excite a browbeaten supporter base. Clarke is just unlikely to care about the latter element.