# Next Scotland Manager Odds: Moyes and Martinez Are Not the Answer

Scotland are looking for a new manager and the bookmakers have already made a mess of it. David Moyes and Roberto Martinez sharing the top of the odds board tells you everything about how little clarity there is around this job right now.

The Vacancy

Steve Clarke finally left after Euro 2024 went sideways — a tournament Scotland were fortunate to reach and unfortunate to exit quite as badly as they did. The job has been open long enough for the SFA to have done their homework. Instead, we're getting leaks, odd names, and odds that read like someone threw darts at a list of available coaches.

Let's be straight about the two favourites.

David Moyes

Moyes is a good manager. His second stint at West Ham showed that — he kept them up, then built them into a European side, then watched it fall apart at the end. He's been out of work since leaving the London Stadium in 2024. He's Scottish. He cares. That much is obvious.

But Moyes hasn't managed internationally before. That matters. Club management and international management are completely different jobs. You don't get to work with your players every day. You can't drill a system across a full season. The best international managers — the ones who actually get results — have either managed internationally before or they understand that their job is curation, not construction.

Moyes is a constructor. He builds squads, builds systems, builds over time. That is not what international management rewards.

He'd give it everything. We don't doubt that. But "gives it everything" is not the same as "right for the job."

Roberto Martinez

Martinez is more interesting and more worrying at the same time.

His record with Belgium was, on paper, excellent. They reached a World Cup semi-final in 2018. But Belgium had De Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku, Courtois, and Alderweireld all in their peak years simultaneously. Managing that generation wasn't hard. Keeping them happy was. Martinez did that fine.

Then he took Portugal. A golden generation again — Ronaldo fading but still there, Félix never quite delivering, Bruno Fernandes carrying the creative load. They were decent. They weren't special. He left after Euro 2024 with an exit in the quarters that felt like underachievement given what he had available.

Scotland are not Belgium 2018. Scotland are not Portugal. Scotland have a few quality players — Robertson, McTominay when he's on it, Tierney when fit, which is increasingly rare. The squad depth is limited. The pressure is different. Martinez has never managed a team that needed to grind results out of limited resources. His entire international CV is built on abundant talent.

That's a problem.

Who Should Scotland Actually Want

The name that keeps getting ignored in this conversation is someone with genuine lower-resource international experience. Someone who knows how to organise a defence, build from a compact shape, and steal results.

Unai Emery is not available and not interested. But the type matters. Scotland need a tactician who wins with less, not a name who won with more.

There are Championship and lower-league managers in England and Scotland with better tactical track records than either of the two favourites. The SFA has a history of going for reputation over fit. Clarke himself was a good fit — he understood the level. But his system became predictable and his substitution patterns were baffling in big moments.

The next appointment needs to be someone who solves that tactical stagnation problem. A big name doesn't solve it. It papers over it.

Our Verdict

Moyes and Martinez are fine football people. Neither is the right manager for Scotland in 2026. The SFA need to resist the temptation of appointing someone who looks good in a press conference. Scotland don't need a headline. They need a plan. Right now, there's no evidence one is coming.

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