Less than a week ago, Steve Clarke enjoyed demigod status among the Tartan Army. The Scotland manager is the man who broke our decades-long wait for a return to international football, and then backed that up by taking us to these European Championships.
What a difference a 5-1 hounding makes. Not that there are widespread calls for his head, mind you. If any knives are out for Clarke, they are of the butter variety.
But questions are at least being asked over whether the national team’s head coach really has learnt from the mistakes he made at the last Euros, and whether or not he is the man to take this team onto the next stage in their development - making them competitive once they get to major tournaments.
Clarke deserves enormous credit and gratitude for giving the nation moments such as Serbia and the build up to the Germany game, and restoring a semblance of pride in the Scotland team, but it still hurts when such pride comes before such a crushing fall.
The result against Germany dented that pride, but it was the paucity of the performance that dented faith in the team, and in Clarke himself to an extent.
Just like at the last Euros, he left Billy Gilmour out of his starting XI for the first match. And just like at the last Euros, he will now be forced to turn to the midfielder and hope he can salvage his side’s campaign.
Last time around, that was perhaps understandable, given he was only 20 and far from a regular at club level. This time around, it was an astounding call, given Gilmour’s fine form for Brighton last season and the need for Scotland to hold onto the ball.
No one is saying that the presence of Gilmour would have saved Scotland from defeat. But by choosing the midfield that he did, and deploying Scott McTominay in a deep-lying midfield role instead of Gilmour, Clarke made a hugely difficult task an almost impossible one.
Scotland just couldn’t get out. They couldn’t retain possession. And by using McTominay – still lacking sharpness having not kicked a ball since the FA Cup final - in such a way, it also blunted the Manchester United man’s main attributes further up the field.
Ryan Porteous’s inclusion in the back three also raised an eyebrow or two. In fairness to Porteous, he has been excellent on the whole for Scotland, and as Clarke pointed out during the week, he has improved on his discipline since moving to Watford. His dismissal on Friday night was his first for two years.
Still, his selection ahead of Grant Hanley – presumably on fitness grounds – or even Scott McKenna on such an emotionally charged occasion, turned out to be a costly one. Though, this criticism could easily be filed under ‘easy to say in hindsight’. The Gilmour call, conversely, was one that set alarm bells ringing as soon as the team lines dropped.
Still, that was then, and this is now, and Clarke and Scotland still have the opportunity to pull their Euros campaign out of the fire. If he can get at least a draw tonight against the Swiss, and then pull a win out against Hungary, he will have made history and taken the national team where they have never gone before.
If the team falls flat again once more though – in terms of their performance as much as the result – then serious questions will be asked. That is how important this match is to both Clarke and to the nation, with his future as Scotland’s leader on the line.
That is not to say that the Scottish FA will sack him should things go south. They will - some will argue, rightly - stand by Clarke no matter what.
Clarke himself, though, may take matters into his own hands. He desperately wants to take this Scotland side into the knockout stages of the Euros, and the prospect of leading his nation to a World Cup after that is also an ambition he would dearly love to fulfil.
But as he said himself during the week, he is self-aware, and self-critical. He will know when the time is right to step aside, and it could certainly be argued that after all he has achieved with the national side, he has earned the right to be the one to make that call.
Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that any time soon. Clarke has suffered setbacks during his Scotland reign and has invariably managed to bounce back from them, and then led his team to new heights. He is in another tough spot at the moment, but it would be a brave man who would bet against him coming out fighting.
His team need to do just that in Cologne this evening. The nation is desperate to have something to get behind, some evidence that this team will not go down without giving it their lot.
If that isn’t enough to progress, then so be it. But another showing like the one against Germany, and there may be some soul-searching ahead for Clarke.
It would seem simplistic to say that Clarke’s Scotland legacy, after everything he has achieved, could be shaped by what happens over the next few days. In time, his reign will be viewed fondly, no matter what.
Come Monday though, he could be regarded as one of the best Scotland managers of all time. Or, just a very good one, who ultimately - like so many before him - fell short when it really mattered.
We hope, and pray, it’s the former.
