Every seasoned manager knows that the job can hollow you out. The travel, the press, the endless recalibration of a squad's morale. Yet, standing on t...
Every seasoned manager knows that the job can hollow you out. The travel, the press, the endless recalibration of a squad's morale. Yet, standing on the precipice of Scotland's World Cup opener against Haiti, Steve Clarke appears to have shed a skin. He looks, by his own admission, like a different man.Make no mistake, this is not the same tactician who ground through the qualifiers with a grim pragmatism. There is a lightness to his gait, a sharpness in his press conferences that GoalZaza has tracked since the squad first assembled. That is no small thing. When a coach feels renewed, the players feel it in the pre match tea. It seeps into the final third, into the way they press and the way they commit to a run.Clarke senses a fresh wave of optimism gripping the Tartan Army, and he is not wrong. The old narrative of Scotland bottling it on the grand stage feels stale against the new evidence. This squad has tactical flexibility now, a low block that can morph into transitional play with a single pass from the midfield pivot. They are no longer just scrapping for a draw; they are hunting for a win.That is the seismic shift ahead of the Haiti fixture. For years, Scotland looked at the glass ceiling and saw a barrier. Clarke, reinvigorated and clear eyed, is now convinced they can smash it. The question is not whether they have the heart, but whether the old ghosts will finally stay quiet. If the manager's current disposition is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding no.So here we are, on the cusp of something. The squad is buzzing, the gaffer walks taller, and the fans dare to dream. This group has the clinical finishing and the defensive grit to trouble any side. All they need now is belief. And judging by the man in the dugout, they have that in spades.
