The cartwheels were metaphorical – but the message was clear. When assistant coach Steven Naismith joked that Steve Clarke had been “doing cartwheels down at breakfast” after Scotland’s victory against Haiti, the laugh carried a deeper shift. It was Scotland’s first World Cup win in 36 years, and for a head coach who admits he “didn’t enjoy” his first two major tournaments, the relief was palpable.
Clarke vowed to “soak it up” stateside, and that message has filtered through the squad. The history makers did not hit the Boston town on Saturday night. Instead, they were up at dawn on Sunday for downtime with family and friends – a luxury Naismith says was missing before.
“Scotland's first World Cup win in 36 years sparks a relaxed culture shift, with cartwheels and family time.”
“Previous tournaments there’s not been that,” Naismith told the media on Monday, back at the squad’s base camp in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Just being a dad, being a husband, being a son. That’s not been there. What we’re doing now is working – and long may it continue.”
Two weeks ago, at a pre-tournament camp in Fort Lauderdale, Clarke surprised the media by walking over for an unscripted chat. Such relaxation, by his own admission, rarely lasted in past campaigns. But on Friday, before his light pre-match news conference at Boston Stadium, he joked with Eilidh Barbour about what he learned from Euro 2024: “don’t get humped.”
Naismith, who never qualified for a major tournament as a player, credited the transformation to careful planning. “Before the tournament, there was so much work done in terms of what the players want, what they need, what they didn’t like before,” he said. “Bringing the families closer, having more family time, having periods of real hard work and then going to relax…”
The shift, it seems, is deliberate – and so far, it is working.