Steve Clarke can do something remarkable with Scotland as Euro 2024 quarter final run is achievable - Keith Jackson

Somewhere in Spain this morning there’s an Henrique McLeish scrambling a think tank together and booking them up for a fact-finding trip to Glasgow.

The working title will be something along the lines of, ‘What are they doing so right that we’re getting so wrong?’. One look at the standings in Group A tells a story of a Scotland recovery which must now be filed under ‘absolutely spectacular’. With an immaculate haul of 12 points from 12 Steve Clarke and his players have one boot planted on German soil already, a full year ahead of next summer’s finals. Eight clear of Georgia and Norway, nine ahead of the Spaniards, this is becoming a dream sequence of a campaign and it’s only halfway through.

Yes, Luis Enrique’s top seeds may have two games in hand having been distracted by the winning of a Nations League title but, even so, the current state of affairs is almost beyond all belief. As a matter of fact, a quick glance at the other nine qualification tables also underlines the gigantic scale of what Clarke is putting together here.

Only three more nations across the entire continent have opened up with similar 100 per cent records - France, England and Portugal - and yet, given their A-lister status on the global stage, this is probably no more than would have been reasonably expected of them before a ball had been kicked.

So, that Scotland is occupying such a lofty perch is precisely the kind of freakish over achievement which will make the rest of Europe sit up and take notice while wondering what on earth Clarke is putting in the porridge of his players. You don’t need to convene a working committee and take them on an all-expenses-paid tour of the grassroots facilities in Reykjavik to realise Scotland’s resurgence is