Czechs first for Clarke
challenge and Aberdeen and Alex Smith set the standard with their Dutch guys.
“By that time, these guys brought with them a different emphasis on fitness and training and we had some catching up to do.
“As coaches we had become more invested in watching different teams, different countries, different players, methods, where they had a different viewpoint.
“It brought about the advent of a dawn of coaching which wasn’t widely accepted in Scotland up to that point but had been prevalent in a load of other countries.
“So we were all suddenly going and looking at what people were doing. “Managers like Jim McLean and Sir Alex Ferguson went out and found new ideas on how to train players.
“So these guys helped us open our eyes and change a lot of the ways we had and move into a more modern time.
“Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t missionaries, they only came to play football, not to educate us as such, but it was a by-product for us.”
The conversation comes round to No. 3 on the list. Lorenzo Amoruso.
A Smith signing for Rangers but one whose true significance, as the f irst Catholic captain of Rangers, would only be felt after the Ibrox boss had moved south.
“I went to watch him play three or four times in Italy,” he reflected, “and what stuck out more than anything else was his character, his leadership quality. He was such a big presence on the pitch.
“I didn’t actually make him captain, because Richard Gough was still there the season he arrived, and he probably only played half-adozen games for that whole season because of an Achilles problem he had. But he was signed
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England v Croatia
England v Play-off C
Croatia v Play-off C
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well as the Czechs. A trip to Wembley to face England would be a repeat of the Euro 96 clash the Scots lost 2- 0.
England boss Gareth Southgate played that day and when asked about the prospect of another Auld Enemy showdown he said: “The good thing is we know that game is at Wembley. We know that path.”
If the Scots fail to qualify there is the nightmare scenario of bitter rivals Serbia and Croatia squaring up in Glasgow.
Wales, semi-finalists at Euro 2016, were pitted against Italy, Switzerland and Turkey. Boss Ryan Giggs said: “We want to take our chance, just like in 2016.”
Play-off C v Czech Republic
Croatia v Czech Republic
Czech Republic v England