MANAGER’S LEGACY RESTS ON FIXING SCOTLAND’S SPLIT PERSONALITY

IT is quite strange, quite unsettling, to feel something other than unconstrained glee at the sight of English football turning in on itself so soon after the high of reaching a first major international final since 1966 and all that. Yet, that’s where we are. Watching the start of a collective meltdown — with Wayne Gammon and the rest of the angry mob convinced Gareth Southgate is too timid to survive as coach, the forward line should be put in front of the firing line and Harry Maguire is no longer fit to walk in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell and Mr Blobby — and harbouring pangs of regret over the fact that this would have been a perfect time for Scotland to take them on at a World Cup.

And we should be taking them on at a World Cup. In Group B. In the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on November 29.

Instead, Wales, this most ordinary of one-man outfits, will be there — a group of guys, outwith Gareth Bale, that you wouldn’t open the curtains to watch if they were staging keepie-uppie contests on the garden pergola.

It’s depressing. And too familiar. Not just the party going ahead again with our noses pressed against the glass, but that we had the invitation in our grasp and let it blow away in the wind.

Sure proof of that was served up in Wednesday’s 3-0 pummelling of Ukraine. If we were able to do that at Hampden this time round, why did we cock it up so badly when it really mattered in the play-off semi-final for Qatar at the same venue against the same opposition in June? Just like we cocked it up against the Croats and the Czechs at Euro 2020 and almost against Ireland — again — last night.

The World Cup draw — made before that collapse at the hands of the Ukrainians, a night in which we seemed incapable of handling the swirl of emotions present — was such a carrot at the end of the stick. The US and Iran, both easily beatable, in the section. And now, as we can see, an England side being picked apart by the piranhas within.

An England side, don’t forget, that we played at Wembley in the Euros when they were riding high and should have beaten. Would have beaten had Jordan Pickford not denied Stephen O’Donnell, Che Adams kept his cool or Lyndon Dykes not struck the ball quite so well when seeing it hit Reece James.

Still, that’s the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this Scotland side under manager Steve Clarke. A perplexing jumble of what-ifs and ah-buts.

They were awful in the pre-Wembley group game against the Czech Republic — launching it long and losing control — and not much better in the closing loss to Croatia.

Recent days, with contrasting displays, also give Clarke big issues to conjure with when it comes to halting these regular swallow-dives from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Are we better with a back four, after all? Is it going to be a straight pick between Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney? Is Billy Gilmour just going to have to stay benched behind Scott McTominay for now?

One thing is for sure. The pieces with which to form a successful Scotland team exist. We witnessed that in Serbia, in Austria, at Wembley, at home to Denmark. Yet, we’ve said this about countless sides in the past too. We underperformed at the World Cups of 1978, 1982 and 1986. Costa Rica and Morocco humiliated us in 1990 and 1998. Euro ’96 was really the only time the players delivered. That, and maybe Euro ’92. They still couldn’t get through the groups, mind. The rest has just been one huge letdown.

A point against Ukraine on Tuesday and we’ll have a play-off spot for Euro 2024 ahead of qualifying proper. Hopes will build again. This time, it will all be different, we’ll tell ourselves.

The reality is that it would be a crying shame if these players did not keep it together until the end of the road one of these times and really see how far their ability can take them.

Good as this week has been, the overriding sense is that Scotland missed a golden opportunity to set up something special in the summer. Yet another to add to those spurned in the past. Clarke (left) is now three-and-a-half years into his tenure. Tough as it is, it is what it will take to find the consistency required to ditch this splitpersonality and shroud of failure — and stop freezing or cowering when everything is on the line — that remains his biggest puzzle of all. Indeed, his defining one.