Three weeks ago, when spirits were high and bank balances were healthier, the possibility of Scotland breaking new ground this summer was already threatening to loosen our grip on reality.
While reaching the knockout stage of a major tournament would, unquestionably, have been the most laudable achievement in the history of the national team, the suggestion that it would define this group as the greatest to have worn dark blue was risible.
Scotland were once regular attendees at World Cups with 16 teams. To have made it through to a round of 32 in this bloated 48-team competition would have been satisfying, but hardly a reason to declare a national holiday.
From 1974 to 1990, when the side boasted a perfect attendance record, a succession of managers had the luxury of overlooking players who’d lifted the biggest prizes in European club football. It felt like the conveyor belt of talent would never grind to a halt.
The 28-year wait to return to the world stage was a direct consequence of all concerned falling asleep at the wheel.
As other small nations recalibrated their approaches to player development and invested in facilities, we procrastinated and got the national team we deserved. And as joyful as it’s been to see Scotland playing on this stage once again, the notion that the myriad issues which caused the wilderness years have suddenly vanished is faintly ludicrous.
Scotland captain Andy Robertson is just one of several players who have fallen short at the World Cup
After a stellar couple of seasons with Napoli, Scott McTominay was found wanting for Scotland
Steve Clarke got the team to this tournament and to two successive Euros despite the standard of player as his disposal, not because of them.
The manager has certainly benefited from having a core of elite operators — Andy Robertson, John McGinn and Scott McTominay — which many of his predecessors couldn’t call upon. The best performer across the three matches, Lewis Ferguson may also now be bracketed with that group.
There is a stellar supporting cast in the likes of Aaron Hickey, Kenny McLean, Ryan Christie and Kieran Tierney, although none are nailed-on starters.
In Findlay Curtis and Ben Gannon-Doak, there are players with huge potential but also still with everything to prove.
Beyond that, however, the squad is replete with mediocrity. Anthony Ralston and Nathan Patterson rarely play for Celtic and Everton, respectively.
Three of the five strikers played in the English Championship last season. None of the five centre-halves operate in Europe’s top five-leagues.
As captivating as Craig Gordon’s inclusion at the age of 43 was, what did it say about how Scottish clubs are producing goalkeepers?
Angus Gunn played well in the three matches. But when your first pick goes into a World Cup having played one game for his club, Nottingham Forest, all is clearly not well.
The manager is not beyond criticism for how this all unfolded — far from it — yet those now suggesting that he erred by omitting certain individuals from the 26-man squad really need to go for a lie down in a darkened room.
Since the Brazil game, we’ve heard the names of Oli McBurnie, Stephen Welsh, Lennon Miller, James Forrest, Stephen O’Donnell, Ryan Porteous and Robbie Ure all forwarded as cause celebres.
Let’s throw in Ross McCrorie, Kieron Bowie, Connor Barron and Andy Irving for good measure.
Would any of them have made an appreciable difference? Frankly, Clarke hasn’t left out peak Kenny Dalglish.
Clarke has been let down by several players, but Lewis Ferguson has gained pass marks
We don’t have a surfeit of top international footballers. That’s why the likes Grant Hanley, Lyndon Dykes and Ross Stewart play. The alternatives are no better.
With a population of 213 million people and an obsession with honing skills on sun-kissed beaches, it seemed almost absurd to hold up Brazil of an example of where Scotland are going wrong on Wednesday night.
Nonetheless, the difference in physicality and strength between the sides was alarming. The players of many other small nations in this World Cup — Cape Verde, Norway and Switzerland — have not been found wanting in this regard.
‘I think when you see the physicality, the power and the technique of both Morocco and Brazil, you can see that we have to try to do something of our own,’ said Clarke at full-time.
‘We have to try and be better at producing young players that can grace the world stage.’
It was a point that was lost in the fall-out from a lamentable display that all but sealed the side’s exit. Yet, it’s as relevant now as it’s ever been.
Speaking in the aftermath, former England striker Ian Wright struck a chord with many when he took aim at those running Scottish football for signing off on TV deals inferior to those in Norway.
He might well have had a point. But where is the evidence that putting more cash in the pockets of the SPFL’s top sides would eventually lead to a better Scotland team?
Throughout the land, there remains an unhealthy culture of squandering money on average players from overseas and the English lower leagues. Clubs don’t promote their own talents nearly enough. And they could not give a monkey’s about how that impacts the national team.
Until the point where fielding home-grown players is financially incentivised by the SFA and/or the SPFL, we’ll be caught in the same trap.
It just feels much too raw and far too early to be going down such rabbit holes at this moment. There’s a lot of hurt to process first.
Notwithstanding the modest resources at the manager’s disposal, it didn’t seem unreasonable for the Tartan Army to believe that the side had the wherewithal to reach the next stage.
The joy at scraping past Haiti was tempered with a realisation that a lack of goals may prove costly.
That was amplified when Clarke’s men went down to Morocco, literally without firing a shot. The sobering defeat to Brazil exposed Scotland as participants at this level, not competitors.
The gilt-edged chance to beat the men from the Caribbean and chalk up a first win at the World Cup since 1990 undoubtedly clouded the scale of the task.
Scotland were the only side from pot three to face two nations from within the top 10 in the world. That was always a tall order.
While the display against the Moroccans was wholly uninspiring, it would have been folly for the manager to have gone toe-to-toe with them from the first whistle. We would have been torn apart.
Aston Villa’s John McGinn scored Scotland’s only goal at the World Cup, against Haiti
It was weak individual performances from the likes of McTominay rather than the strategy which resulted in such a crushing let down.
You can blame the manager for many things. He cannot be held responsible for Hanley going to sleep as Ismail Saibari scored after 70 seconds.
You may question why he selected Lawrence Shankland to start against Brazil. But the aberrations from Scott McKenna and Robertson which gift-wrapped Carlo Ancelotti’s side an unassailable half-time lead were not his doing.
It’s to be hoped that Clarke doesn’t now go into hibernation as he did in the aftermath of a wretched Euro 2024.
That was a bad look, much like his flash interviews immediately after time-up in Miami.
While many supporters would evidently rather it wasn’t still the case, he remains the manager of the national team and, accordingly, has a duty to explain what went wrong and why.
From New York to Boston and Miami, the Tartan Army brought the party, as we knew they would.
Having just signed a new four-year deal, it’s not asking too much of Clarke to tell them what will now be done to ensure the team they support so well is markedly better next time.
