YOU could say Steve Clarke and the SFA got off on the wrong foot. Six times capped as a player – perhaps a guy with 300 first-team appearances for Chelsea to his name might have expected more – somehow this 55-year-old’s face hasn’t appeared to fit when it comes to the decision makers at the national association.

Already working quiet miracles at Rugby Park by the time Stewart Regan was closing in on Michael O’Neill as Gordon Strachan’s replacement, I remember attending the media room as he darkly laughed off rumours early in the reign that the SFA might be about to get in touch. “Why, have I done something wrong?” he deadpanned.

Being effectively overlooked by the powers-that-be for what at least used to be the top job in Scottish football (twice) was bad enough. But even the small details didn’t help. On one of his disciplinary charge sheets the association even spelled his name incorrectly.

Since then, these SFA charge sheets have been as commonplace as the garlands which the media have been thrown in the direction of the reigning Scottish Football Writers’ Association manager of the year. He has regularly taken the association’s refereeing fraternity to task, refusing to alter his plans on the occasion when managers were invited to a summit meeting in Perth on a Thursday night.

“I had made plans so I couldn’t go,” he said. He then added: “I’m also quite sure of the fact that the people who are paid to run the game in Scotland should be capable of running the game in Scotland instead of going around and canvassing managers who are not paid by the SFA.”

The finer detail of how the SFA sub committee and the wider board agreed on the name of Alex McLeish - having apparently already dismissed it as they embarked upon a road map dead set to deliver O’Neill - will remain shrouded in mystery. Other than the fact that, having allowed three months to elapse since Gordon Strachan’s services were dispensed with, this was a panicky, rushed attempt to gain control of the national team narrative made by a divided, rudderless board after Regan had fallen on his sword as chief executive.

You can say what you like about the ‘blazers’, who shouldn’t have put McLeish in this position and could have put him out of his misery sooner than they have. But for once there HAS been a swiftness in their actions, a willingness to act now in an attempt to ward off trouble down the line.

Because with a Euro 2020 playoff awaiting next March, McLeish cannot be said to have failed as Scotland manager. He just failed to convince his paymasters that he wouldn’t. By cutting their losses in this manner, the SFA are at least taking a bite of humble pie, accepting – like Teresa May in reverse – that they have made a dreadful mistake and would dearly love to change their mind.

But it is only the first step. There will be a changing of the guard on the SFA board this summer, just as Rod Petrie – one of the game’s so-called ‘dinosaurs’ – steps up as of right to take the top job as president and the Scotland team go into battle in that June double header against Cyprus and Belgium. What better way to signal a change in attitudes than by swallowing that pride and making a serious approach to Kilmarnock for their manager and seeing if he might be minded to be in the tent rather than outside it? Craig Levein, after all, was another arch critic who the association were man enough to reach out to.

With the national team fighting for relevance compared to the top clubs, it could be now or never for those who feel that the Scotland team should be the pinnacle of our footballing endeavours. In-house candidates like Malky Mackay and Scot Gemmill might fancy their chances of a promotion, while David Moyes is also sure to command respect having worked at a high level. By all means throw the net far and wide for a Lars Lagerback or a name even further out in left field see if there is a foreign candidate who can assess our game with outsider’s eyes, for me Clarke is the outstanding candidate of the lot, a man armed with 20-plus years of high level coaching experience who is still operating at the top of his game. He led West Brom to eighth in the Premier League in 2013, their highest finish for 32 years, and took Reading to their first FA cup semi-final in 88 years.

Linked with Fulham recently and with the permanent gig at Celtic not yet resolved, the sense that it is also now or never with Clarke as much as with the SFA was made clear in a newspaper article a fortnight ago. “I’ve been very open with Kilmarnock fans since the day I came in,” he said. “This isn’t a lifetime project. I came in to stabilise the club and push them forward but I’ve said all along that at some stage I want to go back to England.“My children live there, my grandson is three years old and I miss him every day I’m up here,” he added. “As I sit here now I’ve turned down three possible moves away, and I’ve always stayed at Kilmarnock. At some stage I will leave, and in the summer I’ll make a decision on my future, but I certainly won’t rule out staying here." If the SFA don’t at least ask the question this time they really will deserve everything which is coming to them.