Head coach appointments shouldn’t begin with a name. It should start with analysis of where a team stands and what winning takes: ‘What’, not ‘Who’.

When Steve Clarke stepped down after the World Cup, the Scottish FA did exactly this. Working with us to establish what their head coach needed to be, and how comparable nations win, before any candidate was discussed. That process produced Sébastien Pocognoli.

We’re often tempted to assume what attributes and experiences our coach must have, but these often don’t hold up. For teams like Scotland, domestic and foreign coaches deliver near-identical results. Meanwhile, experience is overrated: first-time international coaches outperform those who’ve managed internationally, and under-55s outperform experienced counterparts. Pocognoli is Belgian, 39, in his first international job.

Most clubs won’t hire in August. But the quiet months are when the ‘what’ gets done, so the ‘who’ is easier to identify when a vacancy arrives.