The Steve Clarke aura that Jose Mourinho and Ruud Gullit couldn't fail to spot at Chelsea – Ryan Stevenson

It might seem a million miles away from the old Harlington training ground next to Heathrow Airport in London. But watching Steve Clarke calmly pilot Scotland to next summer’s Euros in Germany has taken me right back to when he was my manager as a YTS kid at Chelsea.

It’s like that same cool, calm and collected youth coach has simply been transported 25 years to the modern day to get Scotland flying.

And I’ll tell you what - there’s plenty of distance left yet with this manager and squad of players who will be chomping at the bit to make sure they’re on that plane next summer. I’d back them to get through the group stage.

I think now Scotland fans are really starting to understand just how special the man in charge is. But I was lucky enough to see it first hand back in the late 90s when I went down to Chelsea as a kid.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that Steve was and still is amazingly thought of at Stamford Bridge - first and foremost because he was a top player. You don’t play for that club for 11 years without being a bit special.

He’d hung the boots up when I moved up to his age group in the youths but we would have bounce games against the coaches at the end of the season.

I’m talking about Steve Clarke, Luca Vialli, Graham Rix, Ray Wilkins .. what a side they had. And it was full pelt. A proper game.

Steve was unbelievable. I was generally right up against him and Jim Duffy and they would take absolutely no prisoners.

Right into the back of your legs or back. There was no point treating it like a kick about. Then when he had the ball he never wasted it. You couldn’t get it off those guys who really could still have been playing

But it was on the training ground where he came into his own. Steve was never a