Throughout various iterations of Steve Clarke's Scotland backroom change, one man has remained in post; John Carver. Well, at least since he himself was part of a shuffle as he replaced Alex Dyer at Hampden.

The former Newcastle manager has been a trusted right-hand man for Clarke in the four years since and has played a major role in helping Scotland to back-to-back Euros and successful Nations League campaigns.

In recent months Clarke has had to replace James Morrison after the Euros in Germany with Alan Irvine added to the backroom team while Austin MacPhee recently stood down from national team duties for personal reasons with his father unwell and increased workload at club level.

Carver - while open about being available should the right offer come along - is still relishing his role at Hampden even if results have been challenging in recent memory.

 "I'm next," laughed Carver over his own position as a long-term member of the backroom staff. "No, listen, I love it. I've never hid the fact that if something came up, that was right for me...

"At this moment in time, I'm enjoying it up here, even with the run of results we've had because I see what we're trying to do, and I do enjoy it.

"Every time I come up here, people are great with me. So I've got no...At this moment in time, unless I've checked my phone, I've got no intentions of going anywhere at the moment. But it's... Who knows in the future? "

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MacPhee's departure from the Scotland set-up after three years in post leaves a hole in set-piece management but Carver expects that to be ironed out in due course with no replacement appointed for this international break.

Scotland do still have the services of analysts, on top of Carver and Irvine, who are on top of protocols from deadball positions. But Clarke is thought to be considering his options over a successor in the specialist role.

"We've lost Austin and we all know what Austin was about," said Carver when asked whether he'll take on added responsibility on set-plays. "He's a fully paid member of the Tartan Army. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and he loves Scotland. But family comes first, and he has to take care of that.

"He has to take care of his family. We'll have a look at how we're going to do it. When we were in the Euros, he had his assistant from Aston Villa, who was here.

"He'd come and work with us, and he's with us this time round. So we'll have a chat over the next 48 hours to see how we're going to do it. But he did a fantastic job for us, and we've seen the improvement in our set players.

"Defensively, we've been excellent. And when he first came in, we scored lots of goals from them. He's a big miss because he's different."

The one positive of MacPhee's departure, Carver jokes, an abundance of shampoo and conditioner in the changing room.

"We'll actually be able to go in the shower now and have some shampoo and conditioner because he uses it all," he smirked discussing his former colleague's hair care routine. "So it will be nice to actually have some shampoo left."