Steve Clarke refuses to get into war of words with Jamie Redknapp over Andy Robertson

Steve Clarke has stressed he won’t be drawn into a war of words over Andy Robertson with pundits who simply want to further their careers.

The Scotland manager was reacting after Jamie Redknapp became the last high-profile football figure to claim Robertson’s Scotland performances are suffering because he is surrounded by inferior players.

While there might some truth in the assertion, Clarke claimed voicing this view was just a ploy by the former England midfielder to gain attention.

“If I go down the route of answering one pundit then I have to answer every single pundit who comes out with something that they’re paid to say,” he said. “He’s a paid pundit, he’s got his opinion and Jamie also has a Liverpool connection so maybe he’s tried to protect Andy a little bit.

“But Andy is a big boy. He doesn’t need protecting. Every time I name a squad Andy is the first to reply: ‘When is it gaffer? I’ll see you there!’.

“I’m not going to go down the route of talking about every pundit who has something bad to say about the national team. The only way to stop them saying bad things is to start winning games. I don’t hide from that fact.

“If I go down that route then the next pundit will see that I’ve had a little bite back,” he added. “They’ll want to say something as well to see if they get a bite back because that raises their profile as a pundit. Pundits are paid to say what they say.”