Steve Clarke has never considered quitting his Scotland job after the Euros and is aiming for his ‘last chance’ to reach the World Cup | Football News

Steve Clarke insists he has not considered quitting as Scotland manager despite the heavy criticism he faced after his team were knocked out in the group stage of Euro 2024 earlier this summer.

After naming his squad for the upcoming Nations League matches against Poland and Portugal, the 60-year-old faced the media at Hampden on Tuesday for the first time since the decisive defeat to Hungary in Stuttgart in June.

Asked if he had considered walking away after the disappointment of the European Championships, Clake replied: “No.”

Clarke, whose contract runs until after the 2026 World Cup, laughingly explained why he felt compelled to stay: “My contract!

“I’ve always said I’d like to go to a World Cup with my country. I have a group of players who are determined to go to a World Cup with their country, and for some of them it will be their last chance. That’s where your motivation comes from.”

Clarke is “optimistic” that Scotland can bounce back from their European Championship disappointment in the same way they bounced back from their defeat to Ukraine in the 2022 World Cup play-offs.

“We didn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve in the tournament,” Clarke said. “I think the most important thing is that you have to learn in football to progress.

“The last time we were disappointed at this level was when we didn’t make it to the World Cup. We went away, we reset, we came back and we managed to qualify for the Nations League A section.

“We responded well. The last qualifying campaign for Euro 24 was probably one of our best. That’s what we have to do again.”

Clarke insisted he would take the criticism he received in stride, but he felt injuries to the likes of Lyndon Dykes, Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson and Ben Doak and the loss of Kieran Tierney midway through the tournament were a clear obstacle for Scotland.

“There’s always going to be criticism if you don’t reach your goals,” Clarke said. “If all the criticism is on me, that’s fine, I can handle it.

“I think you have to look at the fact that the run-up to the tournament was not smooth.

“We’ve lost a lot of injured players, even in the camp. We’ve lost a lot of players. I think we’ve shown that if we’re missing one or two key players, we’re not as strong a team as we would be with those players in the team.

“There are a lot of little things that make a team in a tournament. It wasn’t our tournament. It didn’t go our way and you end up disappointed. There are too many little things that didn’t come together.”

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