Kenny McLean answers lingering Rangers transfer question with Norwich situation 'resolved pretty quickly'
Kenny McLean insists it’s time Scotland landed some winning blows at the top table of the Nations League.
Assistant boss John Carver claimed Steve Clarke’s side might have to “suffer” in the short term to benefit from long-term gains of playing the top countries in Europe. But McLean is desperate to end a rotten run that has seen Scotland win just one of their last 14 games - against Gibraltar - when they face Croatia on Saturday night. The Scots have slipped to 52nd in the FIFA world rankings and sit 40 places below Zlatko Dalic’s side.
But after losing the opening two group games to Poland and Portugal, McLean is determined to make it third time lucky in Zagreb and turn the tide on a woeful 12 months of form. The Norwich City captain said: “Everybody needs to keep improving and keep doing the right things. Keep taking on the messages from the managers and the coaches because that's the only way we're going to get better.
“Nobody wants to be losing games but you can definitely take stuff from the games that you're losing as well as the games that you're winning. There has been some good stuff - but we don't want to say it's been good because we've not been winning games.
“That's what it's all about. It's all about winning games. But we want to do it playing the right way as well and we're trying to do that.”
Tomorrow will mark exactly a year since Clarke’s troops lost a Euro qualifier 2-0 in Spain. That brought a run of five consecutive competitive wins to a halt. And they’ve not tasted victory in a game that matters since.
But McLean said: “We've got great people around the place - staff, coaches, everybody that's here wants success for the country, same as the fans.
“We want to be winning games. Unfortunately it's not been the case recently, but we've been working as hard as we can to try and improve that. We want to be pitting ourselves against the best, that's what we're doing. But the next step is to start getting these results and we're desperate for them."
Meanwhile, McLean insists he was never likely to fly the Canaries nest in the summer after a chat with new Norwich boss Johannes Hoff Thorup. Record Sport revealed the 32-year-old was on Rangers' list of targets in June.
Asked if a move to Rangers was close, McLean said: "Not too much that needed spoken about, to be honest. The manager was in the door a couple of weeks and I had a conversation with him.
“He'd made it quite clear publicly that he wanted young players. And I didn't quite fit that bracket. But when I spoke to him he knew he needed some experience about the place and I've been there a long time.
“He told me I was still a big part of the plan. So for me that was me secure and getting my head down at Norwich and not really focusing on elsewhere. It was resolved pretty quickly.”
McLean is contracted to Norwich until 2026 with the option of a further year. And he said: "I've got a few years left down there, so unless they boot me out the door…
“The club's going in the right direction, we’ve got good people in charge of the club. We've got new owners and stuff like that coming in. And a new manager who's been a breath of fresh air. It's a really exciting time for the next few years. Obviously you won't see it too much but the fans are really getting onside with it.
“They can see the way the club's going. Obviously we've not been in the Prem for the last couple of years but that's always been the ambition at the club. And that's definitely what we're after.”