World Cup Humiliation
No Clarke, no golden generation, no plan: Scotland’s future prospects look bleak
©TM/IMAGO
Scotland’s unceremonious departure from the 2026 World Cup was as demoralising as it was dramatic. Whether it be the self-inflicted mistakes in defence or the failure to create any serious chances in the final third against Brazil, the Tartan Army had very little to point to following the 3-0 defeat aside from abject failure. Such was the nature of Scotland’s tepid, third-place finish in Group C that manager Steve Clarke duly announced his resignation shortly after the match, despite signing a long-term contract with the Scottish FA one month before the start of the tournament.
Staff
S. Clarke
Age: 62
Scotland
81
38
14
29
Clarke’s departure now leaves the Scotland national team in a perilous situation. Whether it be Alex McLeish, Craig Levein or the infamous tenure of Berti Vogts, Scotland don’t have a great track record of appointing the right man for a job that comes with a huge amount of pressure and not an awful lot of talent to work with. Couple that with the fact that Clarke has undoubtedly etched his name in the history of the national team after qualifying for three consecutive tournaments, and it’s not hard to see why some top-tier managers may struggle to see the appeal in following the former Kilmarnock manager’s success at Hampden.
However, while fans will bicker and debate over Clarke’s tactics and player selections over the last seven years and wonder whether a different manager would have brought more enlightened solutions to the fore, the real concern for the future of the Scotland national team will most likely come down to the players on the pitch, rather than the head coach tasked with getting performances and results out of them. Not only has Scotland just lost its best manager in the modern era, but it’s also saying goodbye to a golden generation.
Stats
S. McTominay
Central Midfield
Scotland
73
15
4
Stats
J. McGinn
Central Midfield
Scotland
89
21
11
Stats
A. Robertson
Left-Back
Scotland
97
4
13
Indeed, with a squad average age of 29.3, Scotland entered this year’s World Cup with the second-oldest squad in Group C and the seventh-oldest squad in the entire competition. No less than 12 of Clarke’s 26-man squad are already in their thirties, with a further six players aged 29. And, most notably, key players like Andy Robertson (32), John McGinn (31), Kieran Tierney (29), Ryan Christie (31) and, perhaps most importantly, Scott McTominay (29), are all either at the peak of their powers or viewing it in the rear-view mirror. Regardless of whether Clarke had decided to stay after this debacle of a World Cup, it’s clear that the spine of his team would have had to have been replaced before Euro 2028.
This, unfortunately for the national team, points to a far bigger problem than the search for a new manager. As we can see in the graph above, which shows the total market value of every Scottish player around the world, the national pool of players Clarke could call upon had a peak market value of €511m in 2021 – which coincided with Scotland qualifying for Euro 2020, its first tournament in 22 years – but has since consistently fallen since then. So much so that the current “stock” of Scotland players has fallen by a worrying 21% over the course of the last five years and sits at its lowest point since 2018.
There are two reasons for this worrying drop in the total Scottish market value. The most obvious one is that the total market value figure closely mirrors the rise and fall of Scotland’s biggest players. For example, McTominay hit his career-high market value of €50m in the summer of 2025 but has since seen that fall by €10m, Robertson’s market value has fallen by €58m since the summer of 2022 and McGinn’s market value has gone from a high of €32m in 2022 to now standing at just €13m.
The second reason behind the total Scottish market value nosediving in recent years is simply due to the lack of good, young players stepping up to replace the aforementioned golden generation. Of the most valuable players in Clarke’s World Cup squad, there are some decent players with strong market values, such as Aaron Hickey (€16m), Lewis Ferguson (€14m) and George Hirst (€10m), but these are players who are now at least halfway through their careers and likely at the peak of their powers. And there are very few young talents to choose from.
Indeed, when we pull together a list of the most valuable Scottish talents aged 21 or younger in the game today, it makes for worrying viewing. As we can see in the table above, Scotland have just two players in that age category with market values in the double figures: Udinese midfielder Lennon Miller and Bournemouth winger Ben Gannon-Doak. After that, there’s very little to pick from aside from a number of prospects that haven’t even started playing senior football yet, such as Manchester United’s Tyler Fletcher or Tottenham centre forward James Wilson. Even if we were to extend that range to players aged 23 or younger, to include players like Kieron Bowie, Tommy Conway or Robbie Ure, it still points to a mere handful of potential talents to replace McTominay & Co.
Whether this was in the back of Clarke’s mind when he decided to step down from the Scotland national team is impossible to know. But whoever is tasked with replacing the bristly head coach and guiding Scotland to future European Championships and World Cups will almost certainly have far fewer stars to call upon than Clarke has for the past seven years.
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