Steve Clarke tells Scotland stars he is looking forward to Euro 2024 squad cull as boss delivers brutal truth

Steve Clarke has insisted he won’t beat himself up when he breaks the hearts of the players who don’t make Scotland ’s squad for the Euros.

The national boss is facing some serious soul searching over the course of the next five months as he whittles down the numbers before selecting a final 23 strong group for the big one in Germany this summer. And he admits he’s still not fully gotten over being left out of two World Cups by Andy Roxburgh and then Craig Brown during his own time as a Chelsea player.

But Clarke insists he’s looking forward to making those same difficult decisions ahead of leading the country to a second successive European Championships this summer. Clarke said: “Yes, I was in a huff when I didn’t make the squads for Italia 90 and France 98. Listen, I understand it. I get it. So when I do have to make those decisions at least the players will know I do have empathy for them because I have been in that situation myself.

“But there is a long way to go before we get there, so I am not going to beat myself up for the next five months wondering what is going to happen. Players will get injured, maybe somebody will turn up who you think, ‘He’ll make us better,’. “Something might turn up, you never know. So no, I am not going to beat myself up. It will be a really tough decision but one that, if I am being honest, I look forward to making, because that’s my job.”

And Clarke has told how his mind was made up to become a manager himself when Brown decided not to draft him into Scotland’s squad for France 98, despite helping an all-star Chelsea side to an FA Cup and Cup Winners Cup double during a historic club campaign. He said: “I was probably closer to getting the call for the 1990 one because, by the