“It wouldn’t happen in many jobs that your boss would tell you in the showers that he’s leaving,” laughs Dicker, recalling the moment when Clarke admitted that the deal for him to go and manage his country was effectively done.

Kilmarnock’s fortunes went south after his departure. But after some awkward early days, Scotland has benefited from Clarke’s presence and for the first time since 1998, this international tournament summer will have Tartan Army involvement.

It brought down the curtain on an extraordinary period of failure for a football-mad nation.

The Scots were once mocked for talking or singing a good game, and then flopping at major finals. But even that was better than two decades of not qualifying at all, stuck at home while countries with a modest football history by comparison sampled World Cups and European Championships.

The Scots were the frustrated spectators. Berti Vogts, Walter Smith, Alex McLeish (twice), George Burley, Craig Levein and Gordon Strachan all tried and failed to get there. Strachan suggested there may be genetic issues after their failure to reach the 2018 World Cup.

“Maybe we get big women and men together and see what we can do,” he suggested.

In Clarke, Scotland landed a pragmatic problem solver who used the Nations League play-offs route to end a nation’s misery. They actually performed poorly in regular qualifying, finishing nine points off second-placed Russia (Clarke took over from McLeish midway through) but the back-door route was kind and penalty shoot-out victories over Israel and Serbia got them over the line.

A 90th-minute concession in Serbia – when they were seconds from progression – looked like providing the script for another tragicomedy, but the spot kicks went Scotland’s way, with veteran netminder David Marshall the hero, and a curse was broken.

Now they prepare for a finals adventure that will hopefully be unspoiled by last week’s Covid chaos in the Scotland camp, with Hampden Park matches against Czech Republic and Croatia, either side of a Wembley showdown with England that will evoke memories of Paul Gascoigne and Euro ’96.

Their manager Clarke was watching then too, overlooked as a player by successive Scottish managers, despite his consistent service to Chelsea.

He won just six caps despite operating consistently at Premier League level, yet he has gained belated recognition in his coaching career, working as an assistant or coach with Newcastle, Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool before going out on his own. Former Ireland international Steven Reid is now his assistant.

Clarke will not make a rod for his own back with grand statements before play gets underway. He is a man of few words, both in the dressing room and in press conferences. Dicker still recalls how little Clarke said in his first six months in charge after his surprise arrival; in some quarters it was viewed as a step back for a man who had dined at the top table.

“He was just taking stock of everything,” recalls Dicker.

“Either sitting up in the stand or in the middle of the pitch, he would just be taking note of every action. He would leave you thinking. He was great at mind games with his players.

“But, in terms of the training, everything was so organised from the start. I remember watching the first training session. I was injured at the time, but it was so organised.

“He was on the pitch coaching himself, and every part of the session would roll into the next one.

“We were never standing waiting around for cones or things to be set up. It wasn’t anything spectacular, and it wasn’t something different every day, but he knew what he wanted.

“He had been the coach for so many great managers; Bobby Robson, Mourinho, Kenny Dalglish, so it was no surprise his training was brilliant.

“The ones that are the most organised are the ones that are confident in what they were doing.”

That confidence extended to match day. Clarke always made sure to have all of his preparation done Monday to Friday. They’d barely see him in the dressing room before the match.

“You’d see other managers scrambling around the dressing room at the last minute, talking to players,” says Dicker, “He would come in at 2.55 and say a few things, and that was it. His work was already done.

“He was the same after matches. I remember he came in after one game where we were terrible and said, ‘I’ve learned over the years that you’re too emotional after a game, so I won’t say anything.’

“He’d say well done the odd time, but he wouldn’t be going around high-fiving everyone. You’d think that you wanted to impress him all the time, even if you weren’t getting a lot of praise back. You never knew where you stood with him, but not in a bad way.

“He won’t be shouting from the rooftops,” continues Dicker, musing over how Clarke might handle the biggest month of his working life.

“But he’ll have players believing that if they do what he says, they can achieve anything. I think he’s a little bit more animated with Scotland because he doesn’t have as much time with the players.

“But he’s calm. There’s nothing worse as a player than looking at the sideline and seeing the manager going nuts. He would give you confidence and belief in what you were doing.”

*******

CALM heads may be thin on the ground if Scotland can build some momentum. Drogheda United manager Tim Clancy spent the bulk of his playing career in the country, observing the frustrations as they missed out time and time again.

His take on Scotland’s resurgence is straightforward enough. They’ve simply got better players now.

Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Scott McTominay and John McGinn are Premier League names that jump off the page. Celtic’s Callum McGregor is a classy midfielder.

Clarke is loyal to his squad but the fact that John Fleck, a key player at Sheffield United in recent years, has only five caps, just about sums up how they have options in that area which Ireland would crave. Chelsea’s Billy Gilmour is another talent knocking on the door.

“They’ve a good crop of players, a hell of a lot better than what they’ve had in the past,” says Clancy.

“You can mention their big names but even beyond that you’ve got Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Fraser, lads that are all playing in the Premier League. It’s probably similar to what we had when we were qualifying for tournaments.

“I think the age profile of the Scottish league is now like the League of Ireland, where a lot of young players are getting a chance early. Celtic and Rangers aren’t maybe signing as many big foreign players as they used to – and that might be a factor in the opportunities lads are getting. I think they’ve got a very good squad, plenty of legs in it and it’ll be very interesting to see how they can do.”

Dicker felt the buzz when Scotland booked their ticket, a sense that years of agony were erased in a moment.

“People don’t realise how passionate they are about their football in Scotland,” says Dicker, “Our groundsman followed Scotland home and away for the last 10 years, he’d never missed a game until the pandemic. The whole country was crying out for it, and it was crazy when they qualified. It gave everyone a lift.”

The stats back up Scotland’s reputation as a football hotbed. Their leagues frequently top the attendance charts in Europe when it is broken down on a per capita basis.

“You have massive clubs that aren’t even in the top division,” says Dicker.

“And the newspapers are full of Scottish football, you have the Sky TV deal and that exposure. They have things that the League of Ireland lacks. They are proud of their league, and proud of how they support their clubs. It’s rare you see kids in school with Premier League shirts.”

There is an Irish parallel in how they have played eligibility rules to strengthen their hand. A weakness in their squad was in the striking department, so Australian-born QPR striker Lyndon Dykes and Southampton’s former English under-age international Che Adams were drafted in. Assimilation is still a work in progress.

Indeed, there’s a view that Clarke’s era is still taking shape with their World Cup results in March a mixed bag. Clarke’s prefers a counter-attacking style of football.

“We used to control a lot of games without the ball,” Dicker stresses. “I know people are obsessed with possession sometimes. He’d never tell someone to kick a ball away for the sake of it, but he was quite clever. He wasn’t just wedded to one way, and will set up with a shape or system to suit the players he has.

“Knowing the way he works, I think they’ll be even stronger after the few weeks together leading up to the Euros. They won’t be properly open and expansive but if they get a chance to play, they will play. England will probably think they’ll have the ball all the time and they might, but Scotland could hurt them. They won’t outpass teams, but nobody will enjoy playing against them.”

After years of Scottish heartbreak, Clarke’s unlikely diversion to Kilmarnock could go down as the catalyst for washing away those tears.