Steven Naismith has expressed confidence Scotland manager Steve Clarke will have signed a contract extension with the SFA before the national team fly out to the World Cup this weekend.
Clarke ‘s current deal runs up until the finals – but the 62-year-old has revealed that would like to remain in charge of the national team and try to lead them through to Euro 2028.
The man who has secured qualification for Euro 2020, Euro 2024 and World Cup ’26 is eager to have his future settled this week and Naismith believes that he will reach an agreement imminently.
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“When he said that I believed him,” he said. “He’s very big on saying, ‘Don’t get involved in that rubbish, talking about contract stuff!’. But I believe him.
“I think he is somebody who is very laid back with it all. He’s a guy who has got us to three tournaments, a brilliant manager who has built something here that’s brilliant.
“What he’s said to us most of the time for all of us has been true. He said the boys would make it to tournaments and he said they would make it to a World Cup. And they have. So I’m pretty sure it will be sorted before a ball is kicked.”
Scott McTominay, the Napoli and Scotland midfielder, this week admitted that he would like Clarke to remain in charge of the national team and Naismith knows that every member of the squad feels the same.
Asked if players would be happy if he put pen to paper, he said, “Not if you're not in the squad you're not! No, listen, he's the connection. The manager has that connection with every level, whether it be the support staff, whether it be the football staff, whether it be the players and even players that are not here.
“Even with past players. You'll not hear a past player say much negative about him because he's honest, he's straight and he's what he says normally comes true.”
Naismith has been heavily involved in the preparations for the Worrld Cup finals and he feels that adapting to the heat will be key to Scotland’s chances of progressing to the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time in their history.
Asked what Andy Robertson and his team mates could expect, he said, “Humidity. I think that two of the biggest challenges, and it's 100 per cent going to be the same for every team, will be travel and humidity. That’s something you can’t change, you just have to deal with it. That's kind of been our message.
“I think we've got as close to like for like as we have built here over these years, whether we are in Charlotte, Boston or Miami. It's been a challenge because you've got players at the top of the game in Europe, which is the leading of world football in terms of facility, expectation and quality.
“As a country we are definitely pushing above our boundaries to make that everything is as close to as perfection as possible. That's credit to the SFA. They've backed the progression. So I think I think we're in a really good place for that.
“The challenge is the humidity, the tempo of the games. You can't just go out and burst yourself for 90 minutes. You're going to need your water breaks. How do they get managed? There's loads of small details, but hopefully the Scottish mentality kicks in to play. We're always up for a fight.”
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Naismith added, “It's just going to be natural in all the games. You're going to have effectively four quarters. You're going to have your first 20 minutes and a stop, a second 20 minutes and into half time. So the natural flow of the game's going to change.
“To be honest, there is probably a comparison with when VAR came in. There was a bit more stop start. It's going to be like that. It's then the finer detail of refuelling at those moments, trying to get your recovery and going again. They're the challenges but everybody's going to need to deal with it.
“There's definitely been programmes put in place for every player. Some have got easy access to the different chambers and data that can help with you humidity training, for others it's been a challenge. But, again, credit to the SFA, they've found out what can we do for every individual player.”
