Steve Clarke can't paper over inconvenient Scotland truths with weasel words and here is harsh reality – Hugh Keevins

Steve Clarke has difficulty with, among other things, telling the difference between an appraisal and an assassination.

When John McGinn called Scotland’s Nations League going-over at the hands of Greece last Sunday evening “embarrassing”, the 30-year-old was apologising out loud rather than quietly knifing anyone in the back.

It was the kind of honesty I would have expected from someone whose mother taught my kids maths – and good manners – at school in Clydebank back in the day.

But the manager begged to differ when it came to the use of that description to sum up the team’s performance.

“After my time in the game, it is better not to use those kind of words,” Clarke said. Why not?

After my time in the game, which is even longer than Steve’s stint, I’ve learned if you don’t use the precise words that fit any occasion, then you develop a speech impediment while trying to think of the weasel words which paper over inconvenient truths.

Then we come to what we might call customer relations. The manager put on his best deadpan expression during his post-match press conference to explain away his side’s deadbeat display.

But there was more than a hint of disdain in his voice when it came to the subject of fan reaction at Hampden – as in the booing which came at half-time, full-time and in between time when he was making substitutions the crowd didn’t like or understand.

I’m the first to respect any manager’s inalienable right to manage, free of interference, but there are ways of reminding people about the pecking order when it comes to positions of authority.

Clarke put it in his own unique way when he said: “I didn’t really notice them, to be honest.

"I am focused on other things other than what the supporters are doing.”