It is no secret that Andy Robertson, along with a cohort of Scotland stalwarts, were devoted to Steve Clarke. But that doesn’t mean that the national team captain is resistant to change.
In fact, the Tottenham Hotspur defender has thrown his weight fully behind the Sebastien Pocognoli revolution, helping to bring the Scotland squad – newcomers and old stagers alike – along with the Belgian as he looks to transform the style of play and raise the bar for the national side.
The respect that Robertson has for Clarke is clear, but as he sat down on the eve of a new era for Scotland under Pocognoli’s charge, there was also an unmistakable excitement in his voice as he pondered what may be to come.
“You can be excited for the future but respect the past,” Robertson said.
“Some people have been caught in two minds on that. In my opinion, the time under Steve Clarke was a hugely successful one. He came in and his remit was to qualify for tournaments. For him to do three out of four, that’s nothing but success.
“We can talk about how we performed at the tournaments but as a team and as a country we managed to get back on the biggest stage. That has to be a positive. Now, we can be excited for the future under this manager now.
“It will maybe be a different way of playing, a different style, younger players coming in. So, you can do both. That would be my message to everyone. You can still appreciate what we had in the past and what we achieved. But we can also be excited for the future.
“That’s been my message to the players and I think they can feel that. Hopefully we can push to reach new heights.”
What this manager and these players mean by new heights has been spelled out internally and touched upon externally in the media during their training camp in La Manga this week. Namely, that qualification for tournaments is no longer enough, and that Scotland have to find a way to break the glass ceiling that has plagued generations of players.
At the end up, Clarke had to admit in a frank chat with Robertson in the summer that his race had been run in that regard after the disappointing showing at the World Cup. The Scotland skipper now hopes that a fresh voice can push this group to new levels.
“I won’t go too much into the chat with Steve because we were both pretty emotional at the time and we said certain stuff,” he said.
“That’s not me saying we disagreed. We were very much on the same page. I think we knew something had to change and we had different ideas on how that would maybe happen.
“That manager is the most successful in Scottish history and for what he did for me, I’ll be forever grateful. I didn’t want to see him go but I could understand why he wanted to. When his decision was made, he was determined on it and I had to respect that.
“He got a standing ovation from the players and staff on the way out and that’s the way it should have been. I wish he’d got one off the fans in a way that was allowed. But then it was full focus on who’s going to be next and what’s going to happen.
“It’s now full of excitement for what’s ahead. The past is the past. Steve is the most successful Scotland manager but I now hope this manager can go and challenge him.
“If he does that, we’ll be involved in more successful times.
“Steve put the country first and put the squad first. He felt his time was up and if you feel that as a player or manager, sometimes your gut is right.
“We had to respect that. When the dust settled it was about what was next. The phone calls started with the new manger and the excitement stars to build again.
“That’s football, you change managers and we have to look forward to the future now.”
There is still, though, plenty to learn from the past, and it clearly gnaws away at Robertson that he and his teammates have failed to show the best of themselves on the big stage after doing so well to end the country’s long wait to get there.
“When you get to tournaments, everyone has raised their level and we’ve struggled to do that for whatever reason,” he said.
“No-one can argue the qualifying campaigns haven’t been good. I’ll happily sit down with anyone and argue that. Even the campaign where we missed out, we finished second and failed in the play-offs.
“In terms of getting to the tournaments, we’ve failed to take it on. Some teams just do enough to qualify and then when they get there they take it to a new level.
“That’s the thing that annoys me about the World Cup, the Haiti game. That was their World Cup Final because they hadn’t been to a tournament for years. They raised their game and we won the game. Could we have played better? Of course.
“We’ve struggled to take the handbrake off. Me and the gaffer spoke about that post-World Cup and that’s what we want to change.
“Maybe this manager, a new voice, a new direction, a new way of playing - might be the guy to do that. But we have to get there first.
“We believe we can and have the confidence. Hopefully in two years’ time we can discuss how we’re going to attack the tournament.”
The releasing of that handbrake would be a good start for Pocognoli here in Ljubljana, in front of an excited travelling Tartan Army.
