Sébastien Pocognoli will take charge of Scotland for the first time in Saturday’s Nations League opener in Slovenia, and he does so with the commodity managers cherish most: time. Scotland’s status as a host nation for Euro 2028 means it would be exceptionally difficult for them to miss out on that tournament, while the Nations League offers the new head coach room to experiment without serious consequence.
Pocognoli, 39, inherits a national team whose public had grown weary of Steve Clarke – partly unfairly – and was clamouring for a brave new dawn. Support is unlikely to turn against the Belgian even if the start to his international management career proves bumpy, and he has cannily called up a batch of untried and young players for his opening fixtures. Not all of them will be cut out for international football, and Clarke’s mainstays remain crucial, but the willingness to hand out opportunities will earn him credit. Improving talent identification, including sourcing more players who qualify for Scotland through family bloodlines, is now a stated priority. A salary understood to be seven figures at base level underlines the Scottish FA’s conviction that it has found a difference maker on the out-of-work market.
His playing career was spent mostly in his native Belgium, and he was central to one of European football’s recent fairytales: Union Saint-Gilloise’s 2025 title win, their first in nine decades. That success, though, arrived after Tony Bloom’s involvement and the introduction of his favoured analytics tool, Jamestown, and key decisions at the club – tactical style among them – were taken by the sporting director. The caution for Scotland is obvious: in a Bloom-influenced system, the machinery may matter more than the man in the dugout.
Pocognoli’s own record since then is mixed. His spell at Monaco lasted 38 games before he was sacked, although he did guide the club to the Champions League knockout phase, and his work developing young players drew praise at both Monaco and Union Saint-Gilloise. Scotland’s hope is that a coaching strength which is well regarded translates across the short, sharp blocks of international football.
The man alongside him is Craig Mulholland, appointed as the Scottish FA’s chief football officer, a role as varied as the title is vague. Mulholland’s background lies in backroom positions at Rangers and Nottingham Forest, and his credentials for this post are questionable. He talks the talk; the rest remains to be seen. He has urged Scottish clubs to field more homegrown youngsters – he is destined for varying results on that front – and has overseen the hiring of a batch of underwhelming age-group coaches. Data was central to the manager search, with a sports intelligence agency employed both to assist that process and to present to clubs at a recent summit. Analytics, though, cannot prevail by half measures.
Mulholland’s assertion that “people doing an international job for the first time are more successful than those doing it for the second time” was striking but lacked context. Luis de la Fuente, Gareth Southgate and Didier Deschamps were technically rookies in international management, yet each inherited outstanding players. It also missed the point. Scotland have become regular tournament participants; what the country needs is a coach who can negotiate the brick wall Clarke hit at two European Championships and a World Cup.
The early signs from the camp in La Manga have encouraged the squad, who have enjoyed the intensity of the sessions and the clarity of the message. “The basic principle is to attack together and squeeze the pitch,” Pocognoli said. “When we need to defend, we have to defend like brothers. When we lose the ball, we try to regain it as soon as possible. That for me is the base.” His favoured formation is 3-4-3, and he must do without Scott McTominay for this window while the midfielder recovers from a heart procedure. Scotland remain weak in the goalkeeping and centre-back departments, with much stock placed on Oli McBurnie seizing an international second chance.
Pocognoli’s arrival has not been a clean process for his employers. Clarke embarrassed the Scottish FA during a recent dinner appearance in Edinburgh, when comments about strong-arming the organisation into handing him a four-year contract before the World Cup were made public – an episode that did not reflect well on Clarke either, even if football people looking out for themselves is nothing new. Ian Maxwell, the chief executive, spoke about evolution when presenting the new head coach. “I think in a lot of aspects, Scottish football needs to modernise itself,” he said. “We need to think differently about how we do things across a range of areas.” That sentiment was difficult to take seriously given Maxwell’s haughty dismissal of those who questioned whether the Clarke extension was wise; within months the message had become one of change, and Maxwell, suddenly an advocate of innovation, has been in office since 2018.
The unveiling itself was overshadowed by the Scottish FA belatedly getting around to publicly withdrawing support for Gianni Infantino continuing as Fifa president – clumsy timing in keeping with much of what happened before and during a miserable World Cup. Mike Mulraney, the association’s president and the head of Fifa’s finance committee, remains conspicuous by his silence.
Scotland’s last trip to Ljubljana, in 2017, ended with failure to reach the following year’s World Cup confirmed and Gordon Strachan offering genetic limitations as a feeble excuse for his own shortcomings. Seven of the intervening years were spent under Clarke, during which Scotland became a relevant international force once more. Whether Pocognoli builds on that foundation, or leaves supporters believing they should have been careful what they wished for, is where the intrigue lies.