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I’d say it’s a more accurate comparison looking at Scotland and last seasons dons. Comparing him to mcinnes, we aren’t there yet. Mcinnes was in decline for maybe 3 seasons before we punted him, I’d say for Clarke this is the first real time questions are being asked. I’d say Scotland have been in decline for maybe 12 months. clarke deserves to stay for now but we’ll learn a lot very quickly, two main things - does he stick with the 3 at the back that no longer works for us (like we say yesterday, we end up back 5 and don’t get numbers forward) is he overly loyal or will he bring in the new blood. you saw what happened when the dons finally changed it up, we changed formation, and surprise, it got better. Can Clarke and Scotland do the same?

As ever my friend, an extremely well articulated post and far better than the way I put it. I think your comparison with the McInnes scenario is spot on. Once the cries of Clarke out gather pace, expect the same reaction as we kept getting told regarding Del "Be careful what you wish for" from those who want to show the same loyalty to Clarke that he does to his squad

That started off sounding like morning after stuff, but quickly descended into "not yet over it" territory! I think there were two forms of loyalty on show. One in the picking of the squad, and the second once they got there. We peaked a year too early, in qualifying, and Clarke just continued to play the same team. He has to start viewing the national team as a continual project in constant transition. Every few games, we need to be bringing in a few new faces, and always be on the look out for options in every position. Despite the goals in Oslo, it was clear that McLean and Armstrong (among others) were past their best before date, and needed to be transitioned out, but that never happened. Morgan could have been in several squads before now, for example, and I'm sure there are others of around that age. It seemed to be that because our first eleven were doing well - and I have no doubt that we'd have qualifyed with Dykes, Hickey and Ferguson - he let the wider squad ability slip. He'll now have to ditch them all at once for the next campaign. It's not great management, but again, it's not just a one man show. There have to be people in and around playing devil's advocate, asking him the difficult questions and helping him to question himself and justify his decisions. A bit like McInnes with us, it seems that we've just handed him the keys and fucked off. It's not a healthy situation, and will almost always lead to the eventual sacking.