Steve Clarke plans Scotland World Cup dream and club football return as two new players called up

The Scotland manager recently turned 62 and his greatest wish is to experience a World Cup with the international team having missed out twice before as a player. His narrowest miss came in 1990 when he was included in Andy Roxburgh’s provisional squad for Italia ’90 before being excluded from the final selection. He was also overlooked by Craig Brown at France ’98, although he was a veteran at Chelsea by then.

Clarke is halfway through his final chance to get to a World Cup, in terms of qualifying group. With three games gone, and three to go, Scotland sit level on points with Denmark at the top of Group C. They could even secure a play-off place as soon as this weekend by beating Belarus on Sunday night and if Denmark win against Greece later the same evening. This would guarantee Clarke still being in situ until next March, at least.

“I always liked to think I would see out my contracts,” he said, when questioned about his future plans. “After the play-off defeat (to Ukraine) it took a little bit of time but eventually it was decided that I should get another contract. I got that just before moving into the next qualifying campaign, which seemed to work alright. After the tournament last summer, I had a chat with (SFA chief executive) Ian Maxwell and I said, 'I’d rather sit on the contract we have just now and let’s see how that pans out'. That’s basically the only situation where I could have been in a position to do something else but nah, I quite enjoy the job! You don’t always see it here….”

Clarke was speaking before a crucial clash with Belarus that could go a long way towards securing a place in North America and Mexico next summer. It is being viewed as his last hurrah before leaving the post. He is already breaking new ground with Scotland. Sunday night’s game against Belarus is his 72nd as manager, a new record. He isn’t intending to slip away into retirement.

“I still see myself with a club job in the future,” he said. “Then I look at the ages of some of the young coaches and managers and think, 'Oh, I hope they don’t think I’m too old for it'. Because I’m certainly not. At this moment in time I’ll just concentrate on what I’m doing here. In the short term, we’ve got a big target to try and achieve.”

Scotland bring in two new players

Clarke has called in midfielders Connor Barron and Josh Mulligan, from Rangers and Hibs respectively, to replace suspended pair Lewis Ferguson and Ryan Christie, goalscorers in Thursday’s 3-1 comeback win over Greece.

Mulligan can also at right back right wing back, which provides cover for Anthony Ralston following Aaron Hickey’s withdrawal after suffering a knee injury on Thursday. Clarke said he spoke to Hickey, who recently spent 22 months out of football due to a serious hamstring problem, before the player returned to Brentford on Friday.

“We had a good chat during the day and he said it was feeling much better than it did initially,” he said. “He’s in a much better place than he was when he came off. He’s definitely due a bit of luck. Fingers crossed it’s just something minor, and I’m pretty sure it is.”

Although Greece beat Belarus 5-1 at home and Denmark beat them 6-0 in Hungary, where the Belarusians are being forced to play due to FIFA sanctions, Clarke urged fans to be patient. Scotland took nearly a whole half to make the breakthrough in a 2-0 win in Zalaegerszeg last month.

“In my time we have done well against the so-called lesser teams in the group,” he said. “It is very important you get the points off these teams and it is very important we get the points off Belarus. They will come here and be organised and difficult to break down. Until you break them down, it is a long night.”