NEXT week’s fixture against Turkey has come at an unusual time for Steve Clarke. At the start of the year the Scotland manager will have been hoping to have been spending the coming weeks finalising his preparations for the World Cup in Qatar, yet instead he finds himself organising his team for what some would call a meaningless friendly.
Try telling the former Kilmarnock boss that, though. Wednesday’s encounter at the Diyarbakir Stadium is the final run-out for the national team this calendar year and the importance of the match is not lost on Clarke. Maintaining squad cohesion via another international camp is of utmost importance, he stresses, with no further matches pencilled in until the Euro 2024 qualifiers kick off in March.
“It will just be nice to get them together for continuity of squad so most of the boys that were involved last month are back again this month,” he said. “It’s just nice to get together and spend a bit of time. Even if it’s a very short period of time together it’s important that we do that.
“More or less [it is a case of reinforcing the team’s principles]. Going from September to March would be too long without seeing the players. It’s a game that we had to play because we had to fulfil FIFA’s 10-game contract. But somehow it doesn’t become an official window. Don’t ask me how that works. We will just deal with it and move on.”
The timing of the fixture might well be seen as inopportune, then, but an argument can also be made that the reverse is true. Some of Clarke’s charges have been struggling for game-time at their respective clubs of late – Scott McTominay has slipped down the pecking order at Manchester United, John McGinn has been relegated to the role of substitute at Aston Villa and Billy Gilmour has a grand total of 12 Premier League minutes under his belt for Brighton this season – but the Scotland manager is not concerned.
“That’s normal when you are playing for top clubs with a lot of top players in the squad, rotation is normal,” he said.
“John McGinn has suddenly found a wee spell out the team but I’m sure he will get back in it. Scott McTominay is similar – not quite starting regularly for Manchester United but getting plenty of minutes off the bench.
“The only one you are looking at is young Billy Gilmour. I had a good chat with him and he knows he is going to work hard to get in the Brighton team. They are a good team and they have good players in midfield that are hopefully going to push Billy to another level.
“He has got time on his side and a lot can change between now and March. It’s important for me to keep Billy involved because I see him as a key player moving forward and maybe I’ll give him a few more minutes on the pitch than he’s getting at Brighton at the minute.
“He has done really well for us. At one stage it looked as though he was about to take off but his career has hit a little hiccup – but everybody’s career does. I remember I got dropped a few times as well, it happens. You have just got to get on with it. You have got to knuckle down and prove you’re good enough to get in the team.”
There were no major surprises when Clarke named his 23-man squad for the game, especially when the Celtic’s refusal to release their Scottish players for the upcoming break because it is not an official international window is considered.
The most eye-catching additions were former Aberdeen duo Lewis Ferguson, now at Bologna, and Liverpool’s Calvin Ramsay, who has received his maiden call-up to the international set-up. The 19-year-old made his first-team debut by coming off the bench against Napoli in the Champions League earlier this month and Clarke as been impressed with the youngster’s progress since swapping Pittodrie for Anfield in the summer.
He said: “Calvin Ramsay is probably one of the beneficiaries of Celtic’s decision, which is great for him.
“Obviously I saw him at Aberdeen and you could tell he was one for the future. He got his big move and they found an injury but they treated him well and he is back now.
“He has just made his debut in a Champions League game at Anfield, which is not a bad way to make your debut. There have been good reports on how he is working and how he is training. The first team staff are very happy with him.”
“I spoke to Lewis before the September camp,” Clarke added. “He wasn’t in the Bologna team at the time. He carried a suspension when he went over so he missed the first couple of games. The team struggled and the manager that took him there lost his job.
“I spoke to him and said, ‘I could bring you along but you probably won’t get too many minutes for us. It’s better for you to stay there, impress the new manager, get in the team, score a few goals and then I’ll pick you in November.’ And that’s how it worked out. Not bad, eh?”
