Ian Maxwell, the Scottish FA chief executive, last night expressed confidence that Steve Clarke, who has been linked with the managerial vacancy at Celtic, will remain in charge of Scotland.
Clarke has been installed as one of the favourites to take over at Parkhead following the departure of Ange Postecoglou for Tottenham Hotspur yesterday.
The former Chelsea, Newcastle United and Liverpool assistant has transformed the national team’s fortunes since being appointed four years ago.
He led Scotland through to the Euro 2020 finals and his men are currently sitting on top of their Euro 2024 qualifying section following opening Group A wins over Cyprus and Spain.
But Maxwell, speaking after the SFA AGM at Hampden yesterday, has no fears about the former Kilmarnock manager being lured away by either the Scottish champions or a club down in England.
The 59-year-old, whose team take on Norway away on Saturday week and then Georgia at home three days later, signed a three year contract extension back in March that ties him to the national team until 2026.
The SFA chief executive believes the Ayrshireman is fully focused on reaching the Euro 2024 finals in Germany next summer and then the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
"He's desperate to get us to the Euros and a World Cup,” he said. “They had the success of 2020 at the Euros (played in 2021) and to do that under more normal circumstances would be fantastic.
"We extended him just before the March games so I think it was a bit of a masterstroke by the board.
"We're absolutely delighted, he's done great. They're over in Spain just now preparing for the June games. We're giving them as much support as we can to make sure they're ready.”
Maxwell added: "We've got a tough game over in Norway, which is a sell-out, and we've got a sell-out against Georgia back at Hampden. We've got five games over the course of the campaign that are sold out.
"We've given ourselves a great chance. We've got a good platform off the back of the last two results.
"Having a result like we had against Spain at the start of a campaign is something we haven't done for a while. We had a great result against Denmark (in Qatar 2022 qualifying), but they had already qualified and it was later on in the campaign.
"Doing it at the front end of the campaign gives you a great chance and I get the sense from the manager that the players are aware of the opportunity they've got, particularly with two qualifying.
"But Norway have announced their squad and they've got good players in that squad. Georgia won't be easy either, they're a good side with top players in their midst.
"But so have we and I think in Norway and Georgia they'll be having the same conversation and saying 'we're playing Scotland and they had a great result against Spain so we know how difficult that will be’. I'm delighted with the way things are going.”
