The Tartan Army's best ever manager? Steve Clarke's impressive Scotland record analysed

Steve Clarke undoubtedly etched his name in Scottish football history on Tuesday night, when he guided Scotland to their first World Cup in 27 years. In a truly dramatic 4-2 win over Norway at Hampden Park, Scotland secured all three points necessary to finish top of their group and qualify automatically for the 2026 World Cup. And following the match, Clarke was in a contemplative mood.

"We've been on a journey. I spoke to them about it pre-match, about how this is the opportunity we've waited for," said the Scotland manager. "We qualified for the Euros, got to a play-off, qualified for a Euros. This was the chance. One game. This was like a play-off final. We put everything on the line. There's always one last step, and it's always the hardest." He added: "Some moments in the game went in our favour. We went 2-1 up against 10 men, but conceded and we thought 'what are we doing?'. But that's the Scotland way."

Clarke’s relationship with Scotland fans has certainly ebbed and flowed throuh the years, depending on what competition the national team finds itself in. While fans can certainly point to poor performances at international tournaments, with Scotland crashing out of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 with just three goals scored and not a single win to their name across six games, few could now doubt that the 62-year-old tactician has become something of an expert when it comes to guiding the national team through qualifying campaigns. And that’s evident when we take a look at Clarke’s record to date.

Steve Clarke's impressive Scotland record

When we break Clarke’s time with Scotland down into different competitions, we can see that the Scot clearly thrives in qualifying competitions. After this international break, the Scotland manager can boast an incredibly impressive record of 2.25 points per game in World Cup qualifying games. That should come as no great surprise to Scotland fans, with Clarke guiding the nation to a play-off spot in his first World Cup qualifying campaign, only to then lose said play-off to Ukraine. Which was then undoubtedly put right on Tuesday night, with the famous win over Norway to qualify for next year's World Cup.

That impressive record in qualifying games is almost matched by an equally strong average of 1.94 points per game in qualifying games for European Championships. As previously noted, Clarke guided Scotland to Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, winning dramatic play-offs against Israel and Serbia to qualify for the former to help Scotland get to their first international tournament in 22 years. Clarke’s record in the Nations League has notably dipped in recent years, but that’s largely because of the national team winning promotion to League A last year, where they won just two of their six games against top-tier opponents. As such, his record in these tournaments stands at a slightly lower average of 1.65 points per game.

Although fans may still wish to note the 0.3 points per game Clarke has averaged in international tournaments, as we can see from the graph above, the Scotland manager unquestionably outperforms all of his immediate predecessors when it comes to qualifying for major tournaments - which Scotland have now only done on three occasions since 1998. As we can see in the table above, Clarke now boasts an impressive average of 1.92 points per game in qualifying games, which is a huge improvement on the three managers that came before him in the job and is the best record for any Scotland manager since Craig Brown, who was the last Scotland manager to guide the nation to a World Cup. Which, in the eyes of many members of the Tartan Army, certainly puts Clarke in contention for being Scotland's best ever manager.