Steve Clarke pays emotional tribute to Scotland right-hand man as he confirms departure after friendly win

Steve Clarke has revealed his assistant John Carver with leave his role as Scotland No.2 after accepting the offer of a permanent deal to remain in charge of Polish side Lechia Gdansk.

The highly-regarded and popular Geordie coach has been a key part of Clarke’s backroom team over the past five years, but will now return to his club duties on a full-time basis after leading Gdansk away from the relegation zone last season.

There was speculation that Carver faced a big decision over his future involvement with the national team as a result, with club chiefs offering the 60-year-old a three-year deal. And Clarke confirmed his right-hand man will no longer be part of his coaching set-up going forward ahead of starting the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign in September.

“I think the wave goodbye to the crowd was probably a giveaway,” Clarke said when quizzed on the Carver exit rumours after his side’s 4-0 friendly win over Liechtenstein in Vaduz. “Yeah, listen, the thing with John is when I approached him five years ago to come in and help us, I didn’t think he’d be here for five years because he’s such a talented coach.

“So, the fact it’s taken five years for somebody to take him away from us, to offer him a full-time contract and a three-year deal is good for Scotland. Probably not good for John. As I said, he’s a very talented coach and we’ll miss him. We’ll have to look to replace him and that will be one of my jobs over the summer.”

Asked if he’s got another coach to join his staff in mind, Clarke responded: “I’ve got plenty of people in mind. I’ll have a few conversations. But, like I say, John and I go back a long way. We first crossed paths back in 1998 at Newcastle when John was a young coach coming through and I’d moved there with Ruud Gullit.

“We always said that we’d work together. It took us ages to do that, but when we first worked together we didn’t think John would be with us for that long because I was convinced somebody would come and take him. But we’re pleased he’s been here for five years and we wish him every success in Gdansk.”

Former Southampton striker Che Adams bagged himself a hat-trick and George Hirst converted his first international goal as the Scots signed off their season with a comfortable win to ensure they build some positive momentum heading into the qualifiers.

“I’m happy to get on the scoresheet and help the team,” Adams stated. “It’s nice to score for Scotland, it’s not happened much since I’ve been here.

“We knew it would be difficult, the conditions weren’t great, but we were very professional and our mentality was spot on. It was important to sign off this year with the win. We’re happy to put things right from the Iceland game.”

Fellow hitman Hirst was delighted to get off the mark for his adopted country on his fourth cap. The Ipswich Town ace admitted: “To get that first goal is massive for me, but it was a great team performance and very professional.

“It was very disappointing on Friday night, we had to look at ourselves, but the good thing in football is you always have another opportunity and today we had that chance to put things right.

“They made it difficult for us, it was a dry pitch, there were millions of excuses we could’ve thrown out there, but we played with the right mentality. It makes my running a little easier, sharing the workload with Che. If that’s something to come moving forward then I’m not going to complain.”