Steve Clarke issues Scotland rallying cry to help young players make crucial first-team step

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke says "everybody has to sit down and try to work out" a solution for the lack of first-team minutes for young Scottish players.

It is a topic that has been much discussed across the country for many months now with a recent SFA report only further highlighting the lack of opportunities for young Scottish players to find a pathway to regular first-team football. The bulk of top-flight minutes for under 21 players in Scotland are played by a handful of players, mainly from Motherwell and Kilmarnock, in Lennon Miller, Ewan Wilson, and David Watson.

Clarke, speaking to the media ahead of Scotland’s Nations League match with Croatia, was asked about the nation’s long-term ability to reach tournaments consistently with young Scottish players coming through. The former Killie manager said it is a possibility, however, he also admitted something must change in order to make sure young players are brought through in a more effective manner.

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“We need to come up with something that's maybe a little bit different that we haven't tried before to see if we can improve it because if we keep doing what we're doing it's not going to get any better so we have to try and improve,” he said.

When asked if clubs should be incentivized to play younger Scottish players, in the Scottish Premiership, Clarke did wonder where the money would come from. But also added that it would likely take someone in a specialised role to oversee a new system.

“Obviously I'm [the] head coach and I concentrate when I come to these camps on trying to get the points and the results that we want for the Tartan Army that come to watch us,” he added.

“Going down into the youth level, it probably needs somebody with a different skill set or me to step away from this job and maybe go away and think about it a little bit more deeply. But I'll go back to the point I made earlier is, if we continue to do what we're doing, we'll always get what we get. So we have to try and find a way but that has to be driven, the change has to be driven from the top.

“So we have to get to the top and say, look, they have to understand that we need to change and then we try to change.

“I'm sure previous head coaches have done it before, going way back. Is there an understanding? Yeah, I think there is an understanding, but it needs a collective understanding; it's not just the people at the Scottish FA, it's the people that are in charge at the clubs. Everybody has to sit down and try to work out a way that we can improve moving forward.”