Celtic must show transfer ambition with Champions League pot of gold as major upgrades are needed - Hotline

It was supposed to be World Cup D-Day where our dreams of Qatar would finally come true.

The reality is it's another afternoon on the couch for the Tartan Army watching two other nations fight it out for the privilege with only the prospect of a Nations League clash against Armenia at Hampden to lift the gloom.

Hardly the same. But needs must and if Steve Clarke is to make good on his vow to reach Euro 2024 after our World Cup dream came up short then the work starts now.

And Hotline callers were only too keen to give the national boss a few pointers.

Gary Stevenson, Newtonhill, said: “Surely now Scotland will give youth a chance and find strikers who are not Australian or English. Young Alex Lowry must be given a chance. After another failure and with nobody treating the Nations League seriously, now is the time. Otherwise we will continue to fail. Steve Clarke said we don't want to be one hit wonders, personally I cannot think what he thinks is the one hit.”

Michael Shaddick emailed: “Let Clarke keep his job as he only has the best of rubbish to start with. What is needed is a limit to foreign players who start games for our clubs, say three per squad. Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen all won in Europe with home based teams, so why now is there so much need for the trash that other world teams do not want? Then we may actually get back into contention for finals as we would have a larger pool of home based Scots to choose from.”

But Colin McArdle, Lanarkshire, reckons there’s no point even trying to be optimistic.

Colin groaned: “Scotland have as much chance of ever winning the World Cup as Rangers have of ever winning the Champions League - none. Had we beaten Ukraine we would have struggled to beat Wales in