Silent Steve Clarke would be voted out if he stood for election, he must make Scotland’s case before it’s too late

IF Steve Clarke was up for re-election this Thursday, there is a good chance he would be removed from office following a tidal wave of public disapproval.

That’s how we voters are. We don’t put much stock in the benefit of the doubt, context and perspective, or understanding the tiny margin between success and failure.

We simply say, “If they do things that make me happy, keep them. If they do things that make me angry, throw them away.

This is why, a week after seeing our national team limp out of the Euroswe are still angry enough that if the right candidate were put forward to take us to our following campaign, we would most likely give them a chance.

But here’s the problem.

Clarke wasn’t elected. He has a contract, bosses who are in no hurry to fire him, and most importantly, no one as qualified as him is knocking on the door to take his place.

So it’s easy to sit there, as many have done this past week, saying that they always knew he was a failure, that everything we did in Germany was hopeless, that countries two times smaller than us are twice as good as us, and blah blah blah.

What I don’t hear or while readinghowever, is a plan to make us better.

You know, except for the oldest one in the book, the one that says you have to tear it up and start again.

Coaching, facilities, youth academies, pyramid system, decimal system. You name it, people see us fail and decide that everything is an absolute, that we must be trash through and through and that the only way forward is to go back to the drawing board.

Well, call me Mr Cynical, but this is why the likes of Aberdeen and Hibs have been caught in two cycles of despair for a generation. Because they are always either very optimistic about the latest new nomination, or they parade on the main stand brandishing flaming torches.

Right now, our national team doesn’t need that kind of knee-jerk reaction. What it needs right now is leadership.

And this is where I – even though he still gets my vote as a gaffer – can’t begin to defend Clarke.

The fact that he kept his distance from the media throughout our stay in Germany – a conversation in 14 days outside of official UEFA press conferences – was of no use.

The fact that he stormed off in the evening in Stuttgart after unnecessarily denouncing the role of a referee in our downfall, rather than taking personal responsibility, did him no favors.

The fact that he hasn’t been seen or heard from since and the SFA doesn’t seem to have done anything to convince him to come out of their cover?

Well, you can’t help but think that he’s become an easy target for any stick that comes his way.

It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t care about the criticism, that he says he doesn’t read the newspapers. What matters is that the lack of any type of post-elimination debriefing is a terrible look for everyone connected to the team – coach, Blazers, coaches, players – and a slap in the face for the number without precedent which followed us to Germany with such distinction.

But hey, I covered Clarke’s behavior after the Hungary defeat in my last column. Now, as politicians say, it is time to move on. The question is: where to?

For me, the answer comes down to a conversation that, if it hasn’t happened yet, needs to happen soon.

It starts with the SFA asking: do we want Steve Clarke to continue in the job?

If they accept, they will then have to ask him two other important questions.

First, does he think he can take the national team further than he has already done? Which, let’s not forget, is two more tournaments than any of his six predecessors.

And if he believes he can do it, how does he plan to achieve it?
Because one thing is certain: the way he tried to do it during the successive Euros does not leave him indifferent. work.

His attitude has been far too cautious. His team choices for the opening games of both groups have backfired. His 3-4-2-1 system only works when Kieran Tierney, John McGinn and Scott McTominay are all fit.

We can’t enter the League of Nations and then the next World Cup qualifiers doing the same things over and over again and hoping that everything will turn out differently this time. That’s the definition of insanity.

No, if Steve Clarke wants to continue – and I repeat, he has my vote – he must return to the fight after this latest setback, with a new way of thinking and operating. And he must do it now.

Nobody says he’s going to turn into Ange Postecoglou overnight. He never will. attack and be damned.

But watching that horrible, hideous game against Hungary, it was obvious from the first kick that we didn’t know how to get through a crowded game. defensethat we were tights to make ourselves appear submissive and to be doped with rope.

Of course, he will argue that the kick could have changed everything, that if Grant Hanley buried our first shot on target in injury time, no one mentions their negativity, because everyone gets drunk for two weeks.

He would be right too. These are the margins we are talking about.

We dreamed of reaching the round of 16 for the first time in our lives and no one cared how we got there.

The problem is that we didn’t succeed.

The problem was that the manager then hid.

The problem is that the perception of who, what and where Scotland These can change very quickly once enough noise is generated. There is no margin between being our best team in a generation and a gang that peaked with two wins. Spain and Norway.

This is what Steve Clarke must tackle before it is too late.

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Why? Because, before Germany, he had enough credit in the bank to make his grumpy Ayrshireman schtick quite endearing.

But now that credit is quickly running out. And the more he digs to avoid the problem, the sooner he will find himself in a difficult situation. Speed he may not have the chance to pay it back.

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