Visitors to the cafe at Hampden Park on Wednesday lunchtime were treated to footage of the way we were. A rerun of Scotland’s 2-0 win against Spain in March last year was being shown on multiple screens. Misty watercolour memories. Spain have not tasted defeat since. Scotland will kick off their Nations League campaign against Poland on Thursday on a run of one victory in 12 – against Gibraltar – and with the fallout from a miserable Euro 2024 reverberating from Wick to Wigtownshire.
Twelve years ago, Craig Levein wandered into the conservatory of a Brussels hotel remarking to the Scottish Football Association’s head of communications that the surroundings were rather plush. “Too nice for this lot,” Levein said. His target was a Scottish press pack, with whom relations had become toxic.
