Steve Clarke plans to check on the extent to which Harvey Barnes will commit to playing for Scotland before friendly matches in March. The manager wants to know Barnes is sufficiently keen on swapping international allegiance – he has a single cap for England – before considering the Newcastle player for a potential World Cup berth.
Scotland’s World Cup return after a 28-year wait has put Barnes’s international future back on the agenda. The feeling within the Scottish Football Association has thus far been that Barnes believes he can play for England again, but the player left the door open on a switch during an interview last month.
“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”
Clarke denied introducing a player such as Barnes to the squad so close to a World Cup could disrupt team harmony. “Football players are quite selfish,” he said. “They like to think that if someone is going to help them be better and the team to be better … like I said, as long as they come and they are committed then I am pretty sure anyone who comes into this group of players will enjoy it.”
Clarke has raised the possibility of staying on as the Scotland manager beyond the World Cup. The 62‑year‑old’s contract ends when his team exit the tournament and the widespread belief has always been he will call time on his tenure at that point. Yet Clarke is open to an extension. He will hold talks with the Scottish FA in the early part of next year.
Steve Clarke has led Scotland to the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
“It would need to be right for me and I would need to find out whether it’s right for them,” he said. “I want to wait until the turn of the year, get the training camp and the bases sorted and get the [World Cup] programme sorted first. Hopefully, that will give me a little bit of time before the March games to sit down and just go through everything.
“I’ve got a few questions for them in terms of how we move forward and how we make sure it’s not over 20 years before we qualify for another World Cup.
“This group of players can definitely do 2028. Not all of them, but most of them. There is a lot to discuss moving forward beyond whether I try to make another tournament and carry on for another two years.”
