I found Scotland’s Euro flop more devastating than getting sacked by Newcastle

GEORDIE John Carver has revealed that Scotland’s flop at Euro 2024 hit him harder than even losing his job as manager at his beloved Newcastle United.

Steve Clarke’s trusted right-hand man described the failure to meet high Tartan Army expectations as ‘devastating’ and also insisted it ruined his summer break.

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Heart-on-sleeve Carver – sacked by the Magpies in 2015 while caretaker boss – has been an integral part of the Scots set-up for exactly four years.

The 59-year-old – who has coached at four big clubs in England and also managed in Canada and Cyprus – quickly fell in love with his adopted nation.

And he’s as fired up as anyone to start atoning for the misery of Germany by helping Scotland to open the Nations League Group A with a victory over Poland at Hampden on Thursday night.

On the impact of the early Euros exit, Carver revealed: “I’ve got to be honest, in my career, bear in mind I’ve lost my job, wherever I’ve been, this was the biggest disappointment.

“Because I had so much excitement going into the tournament on what we had with the players and the staff and how we prepared.

“It was devastating and I found it really difficult to recover.

“Even going on holiday, it was still in my thoughts.

“Believe it or not, it started changing when we actually arrived back watching games when I came up to Scotland — you start forgetting about it.

“I know it’s different for players because they have a short holiday, they go back to clubs and prepare for their seasons.

“But for me it’s been very, very difficult and getting out there on Monday, although there was only eight players, was like a breath of fresh air — and I got my spark back.

“I was down, I was as low as anybody, disappointed.”

Carver toiled for interest in the remainder of the Euros after the Scots jetted home following a gut-wrenching defeat to Hungary in Stuttgart in our all-or-nothing final group game.

Not even Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions going all the way to the final could achieve even a flicker of excitement for the Englishman.

Adopted Scot Carver said: “I found it extremely difficult, really difficult watching the games.

“Bear in mind, how far England went in it, I wasn’t interested. I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t.

“I watched the final, I watched it on holiday, I wasn’t interested, really wasn’t.

“Because I wanted to be in that next part of the tournament — and we weren’t.”

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Compounding his torment was seeing the likes of Georgia – a nation with a far smaller population than Scotland and who were FOURTH in our qualifying section – reaching the knockout stages in their first major tournament.

Asked if that added to his crushing disappointment, Carver said: “I think it did, the fact that they were in our group, along with Norway, which was an extremely tough group as we know.

“But if you look, with all due respect, at what Georgia had.

“They had two outstanding attack-minded players.

“I remember going back to when Gareth Bale was coming through at Tottenham, Gareth Bale was winning games on his own — a bit like these two guys.

“They were very well organised Georgia but these two guys were top individuals and they showed that in the games.”

Scotland have long craved a world-class player as a talisman figure, like we used to with a Kenny Dalglish or Graeme Souness.

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And Carver admitted: “All the good teams have got them and need them.

“But we have to do the best with what we’ve got.

“You have to just get on with it.

“I think I’m right to say that the SFA are looking into the future of young players coming through and how they’re trying to improve it.

“I haven’t seen the report, but I’ve heard the news, and I think it’s the only way forward.”

Carver’s been left startled by the lack of action for Scots talents and believes urgent action is needed to ensure there’s a steady long term supply of potential internationals for Clarke and those who follow him at the helm.

He added: “I’ve been up for two or three weeks now watching the games and not seeing many Scottish players — which I find absolutely STAGGERING.

“So we have to find a way of getting young players coming through.

“I know there’s pressures on managers — but we HAVE to find a way of these young players being allowed to develop and flourish.”

Carver has pleaded with disillusioned fans to stick with the team for the Nations League campaign — and he’s pledged they’ll be more attacking.

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Many supporters were left furious with what they felt was a lack of creativity and ambition in our Euro 2024 games against Germany, Switzerland and, especially, Hungary when we had to win – but were a major let-down in Stuttgart.

Clarke came in for heavy criticism.

Now over two months after the finals it’s back to competitive action.

The Scots camp has been buoyed by tickets sales meaning Hampden’s close to being a sell-out for Thursday night’s Group A opener against Poland with further home games against Portugal in October and Croatia in November.

But typically sizeable numbers will also travel away.

And Carver is convinced a united front will produce a team bounce-back that everyone’s craving.

On beating the Poles to begin putting Germany behind us with Tartan Army backing, he said: “It’s important, it’s always important.

“In a competition like this, you have to win your home games, you have to get something from your home games.

“So it is important we get off to a good start — and put in a good performance as well and see if there is something different on the field.

“But we can’t do that without the support of the Tartan Army.

“We HAVE to have them, and when they’re with us, and I experienced it, and I talked about it in Germany, there wasn’t a better feeling.

“So they did their part when it came to supporting the team and giving us everything.

“So we need that again.

“And they have to take it on the chin, like we’ve had to do, get behind us and support us.”

Conceding there’s a need for a more adventurous Scots side, Carver said: “It’s something we have to address, for sure, and we know that.

“You can talk about what system you play, do you play with more attacking players, do you come away from the five?

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“It is something we’ve discussed.

“As you know, we brought in Alan Irvine to assist with myself.

“He’s going to look at the attacking side of how we play, which is good.

“So, fresh face, fresh ideas, hopefully some fresh players.

“ It’s something we need to take.

“So it’s finding a way with the players you have available as well, having your best players available, find a system that suits you to be more attack minded or offensive.”

John McGinn was one of our key players who didn’t perform in Germany to his usual high level.

But Carver leapt to his defence.

He said: “I think it’s a bit unfair to go and attack John, for example.

“Maybe it’s because John had an awfully long season.

“John is 100-miles-per-hour every game, he gives everything, and he was very rarely out of the Villa team.

“Maybe he just had a long, hard season. Maybe that was one of the reasons. I don’t know.

“But it wasn’t just John — it was EVERY one of us, the whole lot of us, we were all disappointed.”

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Carver revealed he and Clarke had a private post-mortem after Germany — and insisted they never considered walking away.

He said: “No, there was never any doubt.

“We had a get-together for sure, we had a really good day, a good and honest conversation, which will stay between the two of us.

“It was hard to take at the time. There was a little bit of silence, which had to be because of how we were feeling.

“But we wanted to go on to the next campaign and get ready for the World Cup.”

Connor Barron, Josh Doig and Jon McCracken have all been called up with Che Adams, James Forrest, Greg Taylor and Robby McCrorie pulling out.

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