When the Scottish Football Association went looking for a new manager in 2019 who could try to end Scotland’s two-decade long absence from major tournaments, they settled on Clarke, a man who fully understood the virtue of patience from his time at Chelsea.

The Scot played 421 games over 11 years at Stamford Bridge, enduring relegation, a season in the Second Division and regular mid-table finishes in the Premier League before finally being rewarded in his last two campaigns with the Blues as we lifted the FA Cup in 1998 and the League Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup a year later.

When he turned to coaching after his playing career, he also bided his time, serving as an assistant at a number of clubs including Chelsea before taking up his first full-time managerial appointment at West Bromwich Albion in 2012.

After becoming the second ex-Chelsea player to manage Scotland after Tommy Docherty (who was in charge for 12 games in the 1970s), he ended the Tartan Army’s long exile from international tournaments by guiding them to Euro 2020 via the play-offs and then sealing qualification for Euro 2024 with two games to spare.

In Germany next summer, Clarke is set to become the third ex-Chelsea player to lead his country at multiple international tournaments after Ron Greenwood and Didier Deschamps.

Greenwood spent three seasons at the Bridge and was a member of our league-winning side of 1955 before going into management and taking charge of England in 1977.

In his five years as manager of the Three Lions, he guided them to the 1980 European Championship in Italy and the 1982 World Cup in Spain and retired after the latter when England went out in the second round despite being unbeaten.

Deschamps won the FA Cup with the Blues in his lone campaign at the Bridge in 1999/00 before he embarked on a managerial career which culminated in his appointment as France manager in 2012.

His reign with Les Bleus has seen them reach the Euro 2016 final and two World Cup finals with victory in Russia in 2018 followed by a near-miss on penalties against Argentina in Qatar last year.

Having guided France to a spot at Euro 2024 after a 2-1 away win over Netherlands last Friday, two days before his 55th birthday, Deschamps looks likely to remain in charge until 2026 after he signed an extension to his contract earlier this year.

In addition to Greenwood, two other former Blues had spells in charge of the Three Lions.

Terry Venables, who was the heartbeat of Docherty’s Diamond in the early 1960s, was put in charge in 1994 after the ill-fated reign of Graham Taylor as England prepared to host Euro 1996.

He revived their fortunes as the team enjoyed famous wins against Scotland and Netherlands at the tournament before a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out loss to Germany in the semi-finals brought an end to his tenure with the national team.

His successor was Glenn Hoddle, who left his role as Chelsea manager to take on the national job and guided them through a tough World Cup qualifying group which included Italy and Poland.

England got through the opening round in France with wins against Tunisia and Colombia but there was penalty shoot-out heartbreak again as they went out to Argentina in the last 16.

Former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko was appointed manager of Ukraine in 2016 and while his team missed out on the 2018 World Cup after a loss to Croatia in their final qualifying match, they made no mistake in the Euro 2020 qualifiers as they topped their group with an unbeaten record.

At the tournament, they reached the knockout rounds as one of the best third-place finishers and stunned Sweden 2-1 in the last 16 with the winner coming from Artem Dovbyk deep into extra time.

However, their tournament came to an end after a 4-0 loss to England in Rome in the quarter-final with Shevchenko announcing his departure from his position soon afterwards.

One ex-Blue who just missed out on leading his country to a major tournament was Mark Hughes who took Wales to a play-off for a spot for Euro 2004 but saw his side beaten 1-0 on aggregate by Russia.

Among former Chelsea managers, Luiz Felipe Scolari followed his short stint at the Bridge in the 2008/09 season by taking charge of Brazil for a second time and leading them to victory in the 2013 Confederations Cup as they geared up to host the World Cup a year later.

Scolari appeared to be on course to lead the South American side to the world title for a second time after their 2002 triumph but a stunning 7-1 hammering by to Germany in the semi-finals shattered that dream and ended Big Phil’s second spell as Selecao boss.

Scolari’s successor as Chelsea manager, Guus Hiddink managed Netherlands, South Korea and Australia at World Cups but all of those spells preceded his time at the Bridge.

The same was true of Antonio Conte who took Italy to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 before moving to west London and leading Chelsea to the Premier League title a year later.

Meanwhile, Ian Porterfield and Avram Grant went close to success with teams in the Africa Cup of nations with Porterfield reaching the 1994 final with Zambia and Grant guiding Ghana to the deciding game in 2015 which they lost 9-8 on penalties to Ivory Coast after an epic shoot-out in Equatorial Guinea.