Small-minded SFA must ditch parochial mentality if Scotland are to thrive | Ewan Murray

Search for Steve Clarke replacement must look outside the country’s borders to avoid future World Cup disappointment

There was one element of the Scottish Football Association’s otherwise baffling decision to give Steve Clarke a four-year deal weeks before a World Cup ball had been kicked that made sense.

When assessing alternatives to Clarke as the Scotland manager, it is apparent that paucity of talent among the country’s footballers is replicated in the coaching ranks.

Clarke’s https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/28/steve-clarke-resigns-scotland-manager-after-elimination-from-world-cup-2026">sudden resignation places the SFA in a position they were not only desperate to avoid but requires something they typically lack; out-of-the-box thinking.

Clarke has spared himself and his paymasters an acrimonious, lengthy goodbye while placing them in precisely the quandary they thought they had seen off.