It's 2019 and Steve Clarke looks on sullenly as his Scotland team is torn apart 4-0 by a muscular, athletic Russia team in Moscow. He knows in his bones as he walks up the tunnel that something has to change.
On a rain-lashed night, Scotland had held on valiantly for an hour but when the dam was burst a flood seemed inevitable and four goals were conceded in 27 second-half minutes. At the other end, there wasn't any good news either. Even a shot on goal was too much to ask for in the opening 73 minutes.
It was Clarke's fifth game in charge of the national team and a painful evening. And yet, in those moments of doubt and pain, the Scotland blueprint that finally ended the nation's 20-year-plus tournament drought was begun.
Tomorrow night's game against Norway is a testament to the work accomplished in the meantime. Scotland will walk out having already qualified for a second successive Euros before a ball is kicked in anger at Hampden, proof positive that Clarke's plan has come to full fruition.
Reflecting back on his difficult start, he recalled: “I didn’t understand international football so much because I wasn’t involved that often as a player. I hadn’t really given it that much thought until I got a phone call towards the end of that season inviting me to become the national coach.
“You were going into an end-of-season camp so you had that week of training before going into the matches so it wasn’t too different from club football. But I soon found out over the next three or four camps that international football was different so I had to change my mindset a little bit. As I changed that and I found a different way to play, the team started to improve.
"When we got pumped 4-0 against Russia in Moscow I just thought, nah, this is not right. Because we had talent, as a football nation, we are a proud footballing nation. And we had lost that bit of pride about ourselves. We were going into international games not expecting to be competitive. You cannot say you can go into international games and win but you have to go to every single international game and be competitive. We were not competitive. We were competitive for 55-60 minutes in Russia and then they scored. And it was finished.
"I was thinking, this is not right. That is when I said within myself 'I need to change, I need to find a different way. I need to send a different message. And I need to find a group of boys, a group of men, that can take us forward.' And that was the start of the process."
"You are not just going to turn up one week and suddenly everyone has the belief you are going to be competitive. You have to give the right messages every time you come together. And what made it easier was that the boys I picked to carry through and take that message were turning up consistently and had been there all the time. Now you see the results and the rewards from us sticking together.
"They matched my expectations probably on every step of the journey, the next one – and we can go back to the games we lost v England, Spain and France – is can we get a little bit closer to those Pot One teams? That is the next step in trying to improve."
Regardless of whether Clarke can find that extra level in his team or not, he's already done something that eluded a string of managers, luminaries like Walter Smith, Alex McLeish and European Championship winner Berti Vogts amongst them, in getting Scotland to not one but two major tournaments. After an era of failure and pain, a generation of fans who missed out on the joy of watching their nation compete at the very top knows now what that feels like.
“The players have done that," he said. "I always spoke about the players being committed and wanting to be here and I think gradually the Tartan Army have come with us. The atmosphere at recent home games has been fantastic and that’s a credit to the work that we have all done, myself, the coaching staff and the players. We have managed to re-engage with the Scottish public. I think they enjoy watching their national team now, which is good.”
“It is about the players. I was a player once as well, and when I was a player I wanted all the credit! The players have to go out on the pitch. That’s why you get wound up a little bit at pundits and people outside the game talking about how easy it is. It’s not so easy when you cross that line and go out on the pitch and you have to take the manager’s instruction onto the pitch and you have to turn that into a good performance to get a positive result. That’s not so easy. So credit to them. Yeah, we do a good job in the background but they’re the ones who cross the line.
"Any time I come up now there are always people stopping me, even at the airports when you are travelling through. There are always Scottish punters coming up and congratulating you and saying thank you, which makes you feel nice. When people are nice to you, you always feel a little bit better."
The 23 man squad for Germany won't be decided for months yet, but many of the slots seem likely fixed in stone for the men whose consistency of performance has taken us there. The manager isn't so sure. Wary of the changeable nature of football, he refutes any notion that it's mostly done and dusted who will be boarding the final flight.
"Things change a lot in football," he cautioned. "I am convinced in my own head that between now and next summer, something will turn up. Football changes all the time. You see the number of injuries we have in this camp. You see the number of injuries Norway have got for this camp, there’s always something that will change. That’s something for me to think about as we get to next May or June but I sit here now and think this one is going to go, that one is going to go, or they are all nailed down, I can’t think like that and I don’t think anyone else should either. "
While Clarke must remain ready for the slings and arrows that football, and life, will throw his way, the fans can dream. Already, armchair pundits have taken to social media to suggest that failing to beat Norway by the required goals to reach pot 2 in the European Championships draw might be no disaster given the bigger names, like the Netherlands and Denmark in pot 3. Clarke gives a trademark weary look at the suggestion.
He said: “Nobody knows who will be in the pots. We will play our game, other nations will have their games, Who is going to be in pot 2 and pot 3? I don’t know. I am just happy to be there. I don’t take prestige from being ranked in pot two or pot three. I am just happy we are in the tournament. Whatever draw we get, we will take."
