John McGinn stood on the Hampden pitch for a TV interview at the end of that transcendental night for the ages against Denmark last November and spoke a truth that no one was really of the mind at the time to countenance, far less dwell upon.
‘I thought we were pretty rubbish, to be honest,’ he said, ‘but who cares?’
Scotland being pretty rubbish is a bigger issue now, though, as the World Cup finals loom over the horizon and it still feels like McGinn is the only one in that camp really willing to raise that, face it and look for answers.
The biggest headline national coach Steve Clarke created over the course of the hugely underwhelming — and mildly worrying — double-header with Japan and Ivory Coast revolved around the fact he was ‘disappointed’ by a handful of folk booing what was a grim display at home against Nippon.
Andy Robertson was at it as well after the loss to the Africans at Everton’s new ground during the week. It wasn’t a booing performance, he said. Those bad persons being nasty were just ‘a small minority’. ‘If we don’t get the result, we just get booed,’ griped the captain.
The overall display that night might have been better than Japan, but it was still no great shakes. Scotland don’t look like scoring. Hearts skipper Lawrence Shankland is suddenly starting to look like our best option up front without playing a game. The worry, again, is that any momentum that ever existed is going to grind to a halt by the time a major finals gets going.
McGinn featured in both of Scotland’s uninspiring friendly defeats to Japan and Ivory Coast
Robertson has had an amazing career. He’ll be Scotland’s most-capped player before long and he’s a proper role model. It just gets tiring listening to him being defensive — off the field, rather than on it — when on international duty, having a go at ‘snipers’ and perceived criticisms.
Referring to qualification for North America after the Ivory Coast game, he said: ‘People need to remember that we’ve done it, not the easy way, but we finished top of the group and we’ve got two friendlies in March when other teams are fighting for their lives to get to the World Cup.’
This feels like part of the problem with Scotland at the minute, though. That too many inside the camp believe they should be lauded for simply making it to major tournaments again. That asking for more is somehow verging on the impertinent.
As discussed regularly in this column, however, SFA president Mike Mulraney recalibrated expectations during the last Euros. He raised the bar ahead of the final group game of the section — that calamitous loss to a seriously mediocre Hungary — when stating that simply qualifying for tournaments is not enough for Scotland any more.
As wonderful as reaching major events is again, Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 were, one fine display in drawing 0-0 with England at Wembley notwithstanding, disaster zones. Those games in Germany last time out were dreadful. Seventeen shots in three games — three on target — says it all.
Clarke, in recent days, has confessed to learning lessons from past tournament experiences, relating to where the team stayed or how he picked his squad.
Japan’s Junya Ito celebrates his goal at Hampden that consigned Scotland to an abject defeat
As often tends to be the case with the national manager when he talks in public, there was no real detail, though. No meat on the bones.
It would be nice to hear more about what those lessons were, but that’s not really his style. After exiting Euro 2024 in abysmal fashion, he spent most of a short post-Hungary press conference going on about the referee being Argentinian and not giving us a penalty before disappearing into thin air for months.
Now, he’s getting snippy about being asked about a new contract. Before he named his squad for those Japan and Ivory Coast friendlies, he had described himself as 75 per cent certain to leave after the World Cup.
It seemed perfectly natural that we’d go to the finals, look for an uptick in performances at that level and see what the lie of the land was afterwards.
He’s the one when naming those squads who said his chances of staying were now ‘50/50’ and that he was waiting to see whether he received offers from the club game. He lit a fire under the subject and now he doesn’t want to talk about it.
What definitely needs to be talked about is how bad those last Euros really were and what we need to do to stop freezing on the big occasion in summer — because that is definitely what happened both with the manager and the team two years ago.
At least McGinn is candid enough to admit it. ‘It’s impossible not to regret them,’ he said when addressing the last two European Championships in midweek. ‘You’d be lying if you sat there and said I enjoyed that or we feel we’ve done ourselves justice. We didn’t do ourselves justice and we know we’ve got a lot more to offer.’
McGinn was right about the Denmark game back in November too. Without wishing to be a major buzzkiller, it is astonishing Scotland won that section. In all four games against Denmark and Greece, they played second fiddle to the opposition.
The overall standard of performances has been a concern going back to well before the Japan and Ivory Coast games.
McGinn enjoyed life off the pitch at Euro 2024 but admits performances on it were shocking
The habit of taking stage fright in major tournaments remains a serious issue as well.
To overcome a problem, you have to recognise it. At least McGinn, unlike most of the sensitive souls around him, grasps that. Yes, there are areas of concern within the squad, particularly goalkeeper and centre-forward. Maybe even centre-back.
However, there is enough in the way of good players to have hopes of beating Haiti and getting something from Morocco to reach the World Cup knockouts.
What happened in Germany cannot happen again. McGinn is one of few who has been willing to concede that in a public forum and discuss it.
In truth, Clarke really ought to step aside and let him do the team talks from now on, because he’s the only bloke inside that set-up who seems to recognise why Euro 2024 created such anger — and why the booing against Japan and Ivory Coast will feel like a Girl Guides’ picnic if the national team doesn’t make a better fist of it this summer.
The time for endless pats on the back is over. It’s now about using the embarrassing failure of Euro 2024 positively and making amends. Just like wee John says.
