STEVE Clarke has stressed he will not contact Harvey Barnes about playing for Scotland again despite it emerging the Newcastle United winger is considering switching his international allegiances from England.
Clarke, whose men could qualify for the Euro 2024 finals tonight if the Group A match between Norway and Georgia in Oslo finishes in a draw, confirmed he has spoken to Barnes about playing for the national side in the past.
The 25-year-old, who moved from promoted Premier League outfit Burnley to Newcastle in a £38m transfer during the summer, qualifies to play for this country through his maternal grandparents.
He won his first and to date only cap for England in a 3-0 victory over Wales at Wembley in 2020 – but he can still represent Scotland as it was only a friendly international.
Clarke stressed he was open-minded about any footballer who can increase his options, improve his side and is desperate to play in a dark blue jersey.
But asked if he would be contacting Barnes again ahead of the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match against England at Hampden tonight, he said: “No, the next phone call won’t be from me.
“I am not going to say I haven’t spoken to Harvey, because I have. But that was a long time ago. I haven’t heard from him since.
“I’m not saying he has to call me, but after this camp I probably still have a couple of weeks of fishing. I will be playing a bit of golf and getting ready for the October games (against Spain and France).
“I want a Che Adams, I want a Lyndon Dykes. On board from the first minute they walked in the door, on board with everyone at it. They understand what it means to everybody within the group.
“They got the message straight away and have been fantastic for us, that’s what we want. But it doesn’t mean that you won’t explore other avenues.
“You need to speak to people and ask, ‘Can we improve the squad? Can the squad get better?’ If that player makes it better and is fully committed to what we are trying to do as a nation then fine, bring them on board.”
Clarke added: “Look at what we’ve got in the squad. If we can find people who will improve us and who really, really, really want to be with us then we can improve the squad that way.
“If there are people who have a little doubt and they’re not quite sure then I am not going to be phoning up and trying to persuade anybody to come. We don’t need to do that – we are in a great position with the people we have got here.”
Meanwhile, Clarke confessed that he had not given any thought to reports that Elliot Anderson, the Newcastle midfielder who he called up for the Cyprus and England double header, is considering committing his international future to England.
“There is nothing you can do with it,” he said. “There was a conversation that I had earlier in the year. All quiet. I then got a phone call to say he wanted to come.
“So we brought him up, he picked up a knock and went back. And it puts him in the situation where he was before he came to camp. He can play for England, he can play for Scotland. That’s it and there is nothing else I can do on that. We will see how it pans out.”
Clarke added: “We have to go away and assess what we have done and ask if we can improve the squad over the next three to six or 12 months, as we’ve been doing. If we can find people who can help with that then that’s what we’ll do.
“But, for now, I understand why I am asked the questions about Harvey and Elliot. But in my head it’s a little bit disrespectful to the people that we’ve got so far that have put us in this position and put the Tartan Army back in love with the team. It just doesn’t sit quite right with me. I’d rather speak about what we have now.
“The more successful you are the more people want to play for you. But there are a lot of Scottish boys not in the squad who want to pay for me as well. Boys who have been with us, boys who have been in previous squads. They want to be involved as well.”
Clarke stressed that he had no issue with his England counterpart Gareth Southgate admitting that he would like to lure Anderson away from the Scotland squad. He said: “Gareth is a well-mannered person.”
