Somewhere in Spain this morning there’s an Henrique McLeish scrambling a think tank together and booking them up for a fact-finding trip to Glasgow.
The working title will be something along the lines of, ‘What are they doing so right that we’re getting so wrong?’. One look at the standings in Group A tells a story of a Scotland recovery which must now be filed under ‘absolutely spectacular’. With an immaculate haul of 12 points from 12 Steve Clarke and his players have one boot planted on German soil already, a full year ahead of next summer’s finals. Eight clear of Georgia and Norway, nine ahead of the Spaniards, this is becoming a dream sequence of a campaign and it’s only halfway through.
Yes, Luis de la Fuente's top seeds may have two games in hand having been distracted by the winning of a Nations League title but, even so, the current state of affairs is almost beyond all belief. As a matter of fact, a quick glance at the other nine qualification tables also underlines the gigantic scale of what Clarke is putting together here.
Only three more nations across the entire continent have opened up with similar 100 per cent records - France, England and Portugal - and yet, given their A-lister status on the global stage, this is probably no more than would have been reasonably expected of them before a ball had been kicked.
So, that Scotland is occupying such a lofty perch is precisely the kind of freakish over achievement which will make the rest of Europe sit up and take notice while wondering what on earth Clarke is putting in the porridge of his players. You don’t need to convene a working committee and take them on an all-expenses-paid tour of the grassroots facilities in Reykjavik to realise Scotland’s resurgence is almost entirely down to just two things, a highly competent manager and an exceptionally talented generation of players.
First and foremost, the outstanding work Clarke and his coaching staff are doing with this group really has to be recognised. From day one, when he inherited a team which wasn’t even close to being fit for purpose, Clarke made his own intentions clear.
Rather than follow the trend of throwing caps around like confetti while crossing fingers and hoping for the best, he chose to identify a key core of players and to build a squad around this tried and tested spine. By doing so, Clarke has created the kind of team spirit and deep bonds which are normally reserved for the day-in-day-out environment of club football.
He took the likes of Andy Robertson, Callum McGregor and John McGinn and made them the drivers of standards for the rest to follow. Kieran Tierney and Scott McTominay were quickly promoted to a similar status in the inner sanctum as Clarke’s blue-print was laid down.
Billy Gilmour, Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson are Clarke’s future planning in progress. Of course, it must be said, there’s more than a touch of fortune and good timing involved here too.
When Gordon Strachan was so nearly defying the odds as Scotland’s boss he was fishing from a talent pool the deepest end of which was found in England’s Championship at the likes of Ipswich, Watford, Derby and Sheffield Wednesday... And yet now that the stars have finally aligned, Clarke is taking his pick from some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League including Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Aston Villa.
But, nonetheless, Clarke has bound them together and worked out a strategy which has made them greater than the sum of their individual parts. There are no egos getting in the way either. When a player of Tierney’s stature is turning up for training with his boots in a Tesco plastic bag, there can be no place for prima donnas or petted lips.
On the contrary, this is not just one of the most talented bunch of players to wear dark blue shirts in the past 40 odd years, it’s also one of the most likeable, genuine and down to earth. Had Clarke and his sports scientists allowed them, they’d have been out on the pitch on Tuesday night sweeping the rain water off it with squeegees while their Georgian opponents locked themselves away and threw hissy fits in the away dressing room.
No, these are proper people with a sense of enormous pride, passion and professionalism in what they are attempting to achieve on behalf of each and every one of us. Of course, Clarke is perfectly correct to point out that the job is only half done. With four more games to go in this campaign, now is not the time to start taking anything for granted.
But even the manager himself was struggling to contain his excitement behind those carefully honed hangdog expressions the other night, following a fourth successive Group A victory. He knows how close Scotland are to achieving something which would rank as far more remarkable even than qualifying for Euro 2020 - a success which bucked the trend of more than two decades of abject failure on the international stage.
On reflection, that covid infected tournament may have come around before Clarke and his players were truly good and ready for it. That they sneaked in through a side door entry via the Nations League may have made it all the sweeter at the time but this winding pathway also added to the narrative that they were happy just to be there.
This time around there is a very different feeling around this squad. Clarke and his players have a similar play-off safety net already tucked up their sleeves but the manager has said from the outset he has no wish to fall back on it. No, Scotland want to be seen to earn their place among the big boys and the start they have made to this campaign guarantees that they will be viewed with a whole new level of respect in Germany next summer – with even more to follow in the event that they restrict the Spaniards to a second placed finish.
Clarke can keep a lid on it all he wants but he and his players are not just heading for another major finals, this time around they’ll have momentum to do something even more remarkable when they get there.
It was seven years ago when Northern Ireland reached the last 16 of this competition in France. Iceland made it to the quarter finals. Wales were eventually forced to stop drinking all the beer in the semis. Try as we might, there is no sound reason now not to believe Clarke and his players might achieve something similar next summer.
