EX-ENGLAND assistant John Gorman has praised the job Steve Clarke has done as Scotland manager and attributed the national team’s exit from Euro 2024 to the lack of top quality international players at his disposal.
Winchburgh-born Gorman was devastated when his country conceded a 100th minute goal to Hungary in their final Group A game in Stuttgart last month, lost 1-0 and failed to secure a last 16 spot.
However, the former Celtic full-back still believes ex-Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle United No 2 Clarke deserves praise for the progress the national team has made during his five year tenure.
Read more:
-
Stirling-born coach helping plot a Copa America coup against Argentina
-
Celtic man ready for Champions League after tough Ronaldo encounter
The Scotland manager has been heavily criticised both in the media and by members of the Tartan Army for his cautious game plan against Hungary - an outing his side needed to win to make history and go through to the knockout rounds.
However, Gorman, who worked with the likes of David Beckham, Michael Owen and Alan Shearer in the England set-up for four years in the 1990s and was involved at France ’98, always feared his homeland would struggle in Germany.
“One guy I really like as a manager is Steve Clarke,” said Gorman. “I know Steve and am lucky that I know him. He is the nicest guy, a caring person. I just want nothing but success for him.
Read more:
“I think he has done a great job. His team play with a lot of heart and produce some good football at times as well. I just wish he had that little bit of luck that you need and that Scotland had got to the next stage of Euro 2024.
“But, being totally honest, Scotland just haven’t got the players that England can call on. Yes, they have Che Adams, Scott McTominay, John McGinn, Billy Gilmour. But they don’t have an abundance of top class players.
“They had a lot of injuries as well and didn’t have a lot of players to choose from. I had a lot of admiration for the players who were involved to be honest. What they did was tremendous really.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel