Scotland 'chalk and cheese' comparison as trusted star speaks on Steve Clarke contract issue

Ryan Christie had five Scotland caps when Clarke was appointed in May 2019. He now has 64, having become a mainstay of a national team that has now reached three major finals under Clarke's watch.

Those achievements have earned Clarke the right to be regarded as Scotland's most successful manager of all-time. Yet, there are still many who remain unconvinced by him if the reaction to the squad he named this week for the upcoming friendlies against Japan and Ivory Coast is anything to go by. The absence of standout players from Hearts and Motherwell has caused particular consternation with the lack of experimental call-ups - Findlay Curtis aside - brought into question.

Clarke is out of contract after the World Cup and some believe his time should be up if the fails to lead the team into the knockout stages. Something no other Scotland manager managed to achieve in eight attempts.

This also appears to be the stance of the Scottish Football Association given no attempts have been made to speak to Clarke about signing an extension in the four months since qualification for the World Cup was secured.

Christie, however, has absolute trust in the 62-year-old to continue to lead the team into the Nations League in the autumn and the qualification campaign for Euro 2028.

"Personally, absolutely," was the Bournemouth midfielder's response to the question of wanting Clarke to stay on. "I think you just need to look at what he's done for us. I've put so much of our success over the last few years down to him in terms of everything on the pitch, off the pitch, all of it together.

"I think for sure he's already written his name in the history books as a legend of Scottish football. So we'll wait and see what happens. Obviously, the players don't really take too much to do with it and let that kind of take care of itself. But yeah, he's been superb for us."

‘Chalk and cheese’

It can be too easily forgotten that Clarke took over Scotland at their lowest ebb, just two months after a 3-0 defeat in Kazakhstan - regarded as one of the most abject displays in the nation's history.

"When you look at the bigger picture of where we were when he came in, and that was me just starting out in the international scene, to where we are now, it's chalk and cheese," Christie said. "If you'd said back then he's going to take us to two Euros and a World Cup, everybody would probably say, ‘you're lying’, and bite your hand off.

"It's been amazing to be part of. I obviously owe him an incredible amount for the faith he's shown in me throughout injuries or bad form. I've always been involved, which has led to a number of caps I never thought I'd reach. So I owe a lot to him.

"He's mentioned it, trying to build as soon as he came in. I was luckily one of the younger ones pushing through with the likes of [John] McGinn and Andy [Robertson], who he's just kept feeding caps to. And now it pays dividends because the spine of the squad feels so close-knit and you play international football in these massive games and you just feel used to it now, which is a nice feeling. And along with that, it's brought success, which has been great."

The current mood of the Tartan Army can be described as buoyant ahead of a first World Cup appearance since 1998. A similar energy was building prior to Euro 2024 until poor performances in the warm-up friendlies ultimately carried into the tournament itself.

Christie is aware of the need to ensure a positive build-up to the World Cup with some strong friendly showings, starting with the visit of Japan to Hampden next Saturday.

"Naturally, after the Denmark game, there's such a positive feeling around the camp right now and the whole of the Scottish football," he said. "So you just want to push that on. It's two hard games, especially the Japan one at home, because you're wanting to do well, playing at Hampden.

"But they've just got better and better throughout the years, even speaking to other boys who've played against them at international level, speak very highly of them. So it'll be tough. But again, that's probably something we're wanting to do, or the gaffer's wanting to do, is play against tough opposition to try and get us ready for the tournament in the summer."

Scotland must beware ‘unbelievable player’

Japan turned heads by beating Brazil for the first time in their history in October, coming from two goals down to win 3-2. Scottish football fans will be all too aware of the threat posed by Celtic’s Daizen Maeda but Christie will be paying particular attention to Kaoru Mitoma given the Brighton forward has scored five times in seven games against his Bournemouth side.

"I'm hoping that doesn't translate into Japan against Scotland," he said. "He's obviously an unbelievable player. Every time I've played against him, I've thought he's got the ability to probably play above Brighton and maybe even be in the top six.

"I think Japan's squad now, when you look at it, there's top level players all over. So a real kind of rising nation in the football aspect that are only going to keep getting better."

Christie recently returned to his home town of Inverness to officially open a new community football complex, cutting the ribbon on the £1.6million Inverness Caledonian Thistle Community Hub, which was partly paid for to the tune of £400,000 by the SFA's Pitching In fund.

Unsurprisingly, he has been inundated with World Cup ticket requests from family and friends.

"I think I've got half of Inverness booked on our trips over," he said. "It'll be the bingo balls for who gets tickets from me, I think. All my family came out to Germany. I absolutely loved it and loved seeing all the Scotland fans and being with them. I'm sure it'll be amazing."

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