Croatia the template as Clarke calls for Scottish youth rethink

Steve Clarke says Scotland “need to change” their approach to developing young talent if they are ever to match Croatia’s tournament success.

Croatia, who face Clarke’s side at Hampden in the Nations League on Friday, have a smaller population than Scotland (around 4m compared to 5.5m) but an impressive international record, finishing third at the World Cup in 1998 and 2022 and reaching the 2018 final.

“They’ve got a system set up right from the young ages all the way through because they seem to have a conveyor belt of talent,” said Scotland head coach Clarke.

“They keep bringing players through. They also have a lot of players with longevity at the top level, with over 100 caps or between 75 and 100.

“They’ve just got the balance right. They produce a lot of good young players and allow them to play a lot of games in their own country before they move out – which is a really good grounding and something we can maybe get better at here.

“And they show a pathway for the young players. There’s a lot we need to try and change if we want to get better. We can get to that level – but we still have a lot of work to do.

“At some stage, people have to sit down – a think tank or whatever – and try something a bit different that we haven’t tried before to see if we can improve it.

“If we keep doing what we’re doing, it’s not going to get better. We have to try and find a way but the change has to be driven from the top. They have to understand we need to change.

“It’s not just the people at the Scottish FA, it’s the people that are in charge at the clubs.”

A Scottish FA report earlier this year said that clubs in Scotland are failing to bring through enough young players. It added Scottish football is “significantly underachieving its potential” in youth development compared to countries of a similar size.

Clarke said: “I don’t think we’ll ever go back to the utopia where you’ve got 16 Scottish players at one club that feed the first team.

“At the moment, you’ve probably only got two or three that are in and around the fringes at most clubs. Can we get more? Can we get half a dozen? Can we get eight? That’s the type of numbers I think we should be looking to get.”