Steve Clarke insists he did not ponder quitting Scotland job amid Euros fallout

Steve Clarke insisted he did not consider quitting as Scotland manager despite being heavily criticised in the aftermath of his team’s European Championship group-stage exit earlier this summer.

After naming his squad for the upcoming Nations League matches against Poland and Portugal, the 60-year-old faced the media at Hampden on Tuesday for the first time since the tournament-ending defeat by Hungary in Stuttgart in June.

Asked if he had pondered walking away in the wake of the Euros disappointment, Clake said: “No.”

Expanding on why he felt compelled to stay on, Clarke – whose deal runs until after the 2026 World Cup campaign – smiled: “My contract!

“I’ve always said I’d love to go to a World Cup with my country. I’ve got a group of players that are determined to go to a World Cup with their country, and for some of them it will be their last chance, it will certainly be my last chance, so there’s your motivation there.”

Clarke is “optimistic” that Scotland can recover from their Euros disappointment in a similarly strong manner to the way they bounced back from their World Cup play-off defeat by Ukraine in 2022.

“We didn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve in the tournament,” Clarke said. “I think the biggest thing is you have to learn in football to move on.

“The last time we had a disappointment on this level would be when we failed to get to the World Cup. We went away, we reset, we came back and we managed to qualify for the Nations League A section.

“We responded well. The last qualifying campaign for Euro 24 was probably one of our best. That’s what we have to do again.”

It's a return to @HampdenPark first-up in League A of the UEFA Nations League, as we take on Poland.

➡️ A limited number of tickets remain –