Alan Pattullo speaks to us from Greece before Scotland take on Greece in the Nations League playoffs on Thursday evening
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman football show. My name is Matthew Elder and I'm joined
00:14by our Chief Football Writer, Alan Patillo, who is in Athens today ahead of Scotland's
00:22Nations League playoff tie against Greece, the first leg taking place tomorrow night
00:27on Thursday evening. Alan, you've been in Athens now for just under a day. How's the
00:34journey over there and what have you been up to so far?
00:37Yeah, it's great. I hope you can see me okay. There's a glare, Matthew, I can barely see
00:42you but I've got the Acropolis over my shoulder. So yeah, I've got a nice spot here in central
00:51Athens and I arrived late last night from Edinburgh, a flight from Edinburgh. A smattering
00:58of Tartan army on the flight and yeah, everyone seems in good spirits. Got here, landed in
01:04Athens, left Edinburgh bright, clear, spring sunshine, landed in Athens in mist, rain and
01:12yeah, it wasn't particularly pleasant but a lot nicer today. A bit windy but bright
01:20and a lot of sunshine. So yeah, it's feeling like the start of the international year suddenly
01:26and on the eve of the first fixture of 2025, there's a lot riding on this game and a lot
01:37of possibilities for the next eight months for Scotland in terms of trying to retain
01:43their league status in the Nations League and then obviously moving on from there to
01:49try and qualify for the World Cup. So yeah, a lot of exciting times.
01:53Indeed, and this is the first Scotland match in four months since that 2-1 victory in Poland
02:00earned by Andy Robertson's last gasp winner over in Warsaw. That was a fantastic night
02:07for the team and I think we're all eager to see how they follow that up in Greece. Obviously,
02:13they've given themselves a chance to retain their Nations League status. How important
02:18is it that Scotland do that? Obviously, we've used the Nations League as a route into qualification
02:24and play-offs in the past. It's a competition that's served Scotland well, so we're looking
02:30to stay in the top tier.
02:31Yeah, I think you have to. There's an argument, isn't there? Some people have been proposing
02:36the argument that Scotland might be better off being relegated into League B and playing
02:40in countries that are perhaps a bit more Scotland-standard rather than playing at the absolute creme
02:48de la creme of Europe. But I think just for confidence-wise, for status-wise, I think
02:56it's good to be amongst the elite, particularly when countries like England are in League
03:03B. It's quite nice to have that bragging right over other countries. I just think this time,
03:13coming back off the Euros, disappointing Euros, going into what looked like a really tough
03:18Nations League group, wasn't it? Six games. To manage to retain our Ligue A status, I
03:24just think it'll be a good fillip after what was a disappointing Euros. It just keeps the
03:35confidence levels up going into the World Cup qualifying, because this really is the
03:41next eight months absolutely pivotal for a lot of reasons for Steve Clarke. How will
03:47Steve Clarke's reign be looked back upon if we don't qualify for the World Cup? It's
03:54a big eight months ahead.
03:58We're speaking on the morning of the day before the match. John Carver spoke to the press
04:06on Monday before the team flew out to Greece yesterday. I believe you've got an appointment
04:15with Steve Clarke this evening?
04:17Yes, we've got a pre-match press conference tonight with Steve and probably a player,
04:26I'm guessing possibly Andy Robertson, a skipper. We'll see what he's saying after the disappointment
04:32of the weekend, obviously losing a cup final with Liverpool. There's plenty to talk to
04:38Steve Clarke about as well. Just in terms of his team, it's quite intriguing. I know
04:43you wrote a good piece this morning, Matthew, I enjoyed that. Proposing possibly Kieran
04:48Tierney playing at left wing on the back of him appearing there for Arsenal in the Champions
04:55League last week. There's lots of intriguing strands to the team selection. Who's Steve
05:01Clarke going to go for right back, for example? Will he play Tony Ralston? He's had such limited
05:08time for Celtic on the playing side. We've got Max Johnson there, he could come in at
05:14right back. Will he even play back four? I'm guessing he will. I think we've been a bit
05:21regressive going back to three centre-halves or back five. But how does he get Kieran Tierney
05:29into the team? Perhaps he doesn't, perhaps Kieran Tierney just has to be content with
05:32the place on the bench. So, yeah, lots to consider. Lewis Ferguson, back now, back playing
05:38in Serie A. Does he come into the team? I think he has to, actually. I think you have
05:42to find a way to get Lewis Ferguson into the team. So, yeah, we'll be peppering Steve Clarke
05:49with these questions tonight. I'm guessing he probably won't be particularly forthcoming,
05:54but you do have to ask these questions and see how he reacts and what he's going to do
06:00tomorrow night. As you mentioned, Matthew, it's four months. A long time can happen in
06:07four months. A lot of things can happen. Players drop out of form, players aren't playing.
06:12Possibly Grant Hanley, I know he's not playing for Birmingham City. So, yeah, plenty to consider.
06:19It's a long time. It's been a long time since Scotland played in Athens as well. Looking
06:24back, 1994 since Scotland were here for a qualifier. In December 1994, I think it was,
06:33Duncan Ferguson playing up front for Scotland that night. So, it's a long time, three decades
06:38since we've been here. So, it'd be good to try and get results at least, get a draw.
06:44Imagine that, get a draw here tomorrow night at least and then bring it back to Hamden
06:47on Sunday night for a deciding game under the lights, a cup final almost under the lights
06:53of Hamden. So, yeah, exciting few days ahead.
06:57There's a couple of young players being introduced to the squad for this cap for the first time,
07:02Lennon Miller and James Wilton from Llywelyn Hearts, respectively. Great to see some young
07:08talent being promoted into the squad. Do you expect them to get any minutes or are they
07:12maybe going to just be a sort of watch and learn brief for these two matches?
07:16I don't know. I mean, John Carver was asked about that a couple of days ago at Hamden.
07:21We asked him, you know, are they here to play or are they just here for the kind of
07:26right to get a feel for the international squad? He said, well, they wouldn't be picked
07:31if there weren't going to be potential for them to be thrown on at some stage. I think
07:36they might be. I think they might be. I think, yeah, I can see a situation where Wilson might
07:41be thrown on towards the end, perhaps tomorrow night, give him a cap. Yeah, there's some
07:47talk of him. Obviously, he can be eligible for Northern Ireland as well. So, yeah, try
07:52and get him pinned down for Scotland. So, yeah, I can see them being some debuts over
08:00the next couple of games. I mentioned Duncan Ferguson earlier. He was a young striker that
08:08played in 1994 for Scotland at that game I was talking about. I was reading back at some
08:14of the match reports and talk about accentuating the positives. Craig Brown, after a disappointing
08:20night, was asked, you know, are there any positives to take from this game? And he mentioned,
08:24yeah. But, yeah, Duncan Ferguson, he was very smart. He looked very smart out there on the
08:29pitch. His socks didn't fall down and I thought, good grief. I hope Steve Clarke's not having
08:34to sort of reach those levels of desperation when asked for positives from the game tomorrow
08:40night. So, yeah, we'll see. But I'd like to see, you know, it'd be great to see Lennon
08:46Miller getting a debut as well. And I guess that is one of Steve Clarke's aims, targets
08:55for the next year, if it is a year, left to his contract. If he's in his last year as
09:02a Scotland manager, try and, you know, bleed into the team some new stars for the future,
09:08somebody he can perhaps gift to his successor, whoever that might be.
09:14What do we know about the threat that we face from the Greeks? Obviously,
09:18they had a very good Nations League campaign themselves, which put them in this position
09:22to possibly get promoted if they overcome Scotland winning against England away from home.
09:28And not many nations managed to do that. Expecting a tough couple of games.
09:35Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah. I mean, Greece don't lose many games here in Athens,
09:41that's for sure. And obviously having beaten England at Wembley as well. John Carver talked
09:47about that. You know, this is their formidable opposition. So, you know, it's going to be,
09:52definitely will be a tough couple of games. I think it will come back to what happens in 90
09:58minutes on Sunday, in that kind of cup final environment on Sunday in front of a full
10:03Hamden. It's going to be, yeah, it's a fascinating, fascinating few days ahead.
10:09And I'm really looking forward to, well, first of all, reporting on tomorrow night's match.
10:15We all look forward to reading your content, Alan. There'll be previews appearing on the
10:20website later today and Steve Clarke. Quotes from that press conference, which is taking place,
10:26I think, around five or six o'clock UK time. Keep an eye on the website for that.
10:32For the meantime, Alan, thanks for joining us from Athens and we'll speak to you on the
10:38other side of course. Thank you, Matthew. My water's just fallen off.