Chris Jack: Scotland will qualify for a major finals again - but it won't be 'This Time'

The marketing slogan is there to inspire supporters and allow us all to dream. The reality will be somewhat different though, unfortunately.

If there is such a thing as tenth time lucky then let’s hope this is it. Scotland have tried, tried and tried again, well had nine goes at it now, and on each occasion been somewhere between nowhere and agonisingly close.

Read more: Celtic captain Scott Brown retires from international football due to injury concerns

Every campaign has to start out with some hope but a dose of common sense should tell us that Scotland won’t be in Russia come the first game of the 2018 tournament.

If we couldn’t reach a European Championships that it was harder to not qualify for than it was to get a ticket to France then we should be realistic about what the coming fixtures will bring.

England will win Group F, and with some ease. There may have been sniggers of amusement and derision when the Three Lions were tamed at the Euros and Sam Allardyce became the leader of the pack, but the Auld Enemy know how to get the job done in qualifying and will take one of the nine places up for grabs for the section winners.

At the other end of the table, Malta and Lithuania will battle it out for the wooden spoon. Every other team in the group will be targeting maximum points against those two.

And that leaves Gordon Strachan’s side, Slovakia and Slovenia in the mix to finish second, third and fourth and in the fight for one of the eight best runners-up berths.

Even the proudest paid-up member of the Tartan Army couldn’t say with full confidence and belief that it will be Scotland that progress to that stage of qualifying.

We have some decent players, a good team spirit and are capable of picking up results. But you just can’t help but get the feeling that we won’t be good enough in the end.

There can be no real faith that Scotland will take the necessary six points home and away against Malta and Lithuania, and pick up more points than we drop in the matches with Slovakia and Slovenia.

Little has changed in terms of personnel since the Euro dream died, so what is to say that the same manager and roughly the same players can turn around our fortunes to the extent that we now have a realistic chance of qualifying when it is harder to do so?

The clamour for Strachan to remain in his post despite the shambles in Georgia and an overall lacklustre campaign was baffling. He may still be the man for the job, but not to the level of certainty that meant SFA President Alan McRae should present a vision of Strachan leading Scotland into the next Euros.

Strachan will name his squad for the first Group F fixture against Malta at Hampden today and his biggest call will be who to hand the armband to after Scott Brown retired from international duty. As admirable a servant as Brown has been for his country, he will not be as big a miss in the side as many fear.

Whoever leads the team out in Malta next month, they will know that anything other than a win will put Scotland on the back foot just 90 minutes into the campaign. It would be a long road to Russia from there.

Of course, Strachan could unearth three quarters of a back four, a handful of kids could realise their potential, Scotland could avoid, well, doing a Scotland, and we could all be packing our bags and heading to a major finals once again.

One day, it will happen. It just won’t be this time.