The Scottish FA insists it will “cast the net as far and wide” as possible to find Steve Clarke’s successor – but has elite club football shrunk the pool of big catches? Following the shock news of Clarke’s resignation after Scotland’s World Cup exit, fans have filled group chats and social media with names, with two standing out above the others: former Celtic and Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou and Everton manager David Moyes.
Yet the harsh reality of Premier League finances looms large. Clarke was reported to be earning about £500,000 a year at the time of Euro 2024, a salary that presumably increased when he signed a new four-year deal last month – but still well short of Premier League levels. “We’re not daft enough to think the Premier League isn’t paying high wages,” former Scotland striker Kris Boyd said on Sky Sports. “In the future, I think Moyes will be a Scotland manager. Right now, he’s the manager of Everton and will be on a big, big salary. The SFA won’t be able to compete with that.”
“Premier League wages make David Moyes and Ange Postecoglou unrealistic as Steve Clarke's Scotland successor, says Kris Boyd.”
Moyes, 63, is entering the final year of a multi-million-pound contract at Everton, where he returned for a second spell in 2025 to stabilise the club and has since guided them to back-to-back 13th-place finishes. Back in 2021, when he was West Ham United boss after leading them to a sixth-place Premier League finish and the Conference League title, he told BBC Sportsound he would be interested in leading his nation: “I think at the right time, when things are right for me and if it’s right for Scotland, then it might be a consideration.” But the timing he referenced five years ago still seems off, even before the finances are considered.
Postecoglou, meanwhile, is currently out of work after leaving Tottenham, but his Premier League pedigree – and the wages that come with it – present a similar obstacle. On a purely financial basis, it feels unlikely the SFA could offer a package suitable to prise either man away from club football. For now, the dream of Moyes or Postecoglou taking the helm remains just that – a dream, tempered by the reality of a league where even a mid-table manager earns more than the entire SFA budget for a national team boss.