The Scotland head coach signed a new deal that takes him to the end of the 2030 World Cup campaign as he prepares to lead the nation back on to the world stage after a 28-year absence.

The 62-year-old had considered his future after a disappointing Euro 24 experience and at one stage rated his chances of leaving at the end of the current campaign as 75 per cent.

But he opted to stay on after qualifying and preparing the arrangements for this summer’s World Cup and following talks with the Scottish Football Association this week.

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“It was always important that we got it done before the tournament,” he said ahead of Saturday’s Hampden warm-up against Curacao.

“It gives everybody clarity moving forward, keeps the stability around the position, the squad and hopefully the future of Scottish football.

“The thinking has always been two tournaments. When I came in it was a two-tournament contract. When we extended it was into two tournaments.

“The decision after Euro 2024 was for me to clear my head a little bit and work out what was going to happen after that.

“It was my decision to run that down, and obviously the qualifying campaign for the World Cup went really well, have a look at what’s coming next in terms of longevity of the squad, new players that are starting to bubble under that maybe can be part of the squad in the future.

“And then it’s just a decision that I thought was the right decision to make, to stay on.

“At the end it was quite an easy decision because obviously I know how much the players enjoy being together. I know how they enjoy working with myself and my staff and it just felt right to continue.”

Clarke has faced criticism at times for being too loyal to certain players, although he believes squad stability is a key component to his record in leading Scotland to three tournaments out of four.

“The squad’s definitely evolved from when I first took over,” said the former Kilmarnock boss, who took charge in May 2019.

“I keep the very first squad that I ever picked on my laptop just as a reminder how far we’ve come.

“I know we’re going to have to change because there was nine and 10 changes between Euro 2020-24 and now there’s another nine or 10 changes in the squad. So there is a natural evolution.

“Sometimes people want revolution too quickly. I think we’ve shown that with the stability we’ve had over the last seven years that it’s a pretty good way to work.”

Clarke, who revealed there were “no clauses” in the contract, added: “People forget that when I took the job seven years ago, we hadn’t qualified for a tournament in 20 years.”