Head coach Steve Clarke has done “incredible” work in his four years with Scotland, Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell says.
Scotland top their Euro 2024 qualifying group, winning their first four matches.
Tuesday’s success against Georgia made it 10 consecutive qualifying victories.
“I remember when we announced him at the press conference in 2019, we said we needed a manager to make a pot four team a pot two team,” Maxwell said.
“We’re now a Nations League Group A side, so he’s actually taken us a bit higher.
“The only word I can think to use when talking about his impact is incredible.”
It is the first time Scotland have started a campaign with four successive wins, with Spain beaten at Hampden and Norway edged out by two late goals in Oslo.
It leaves Scotland eight points clear in Group A, with a trip to Cyprus next up in September.
“It’s not done yet, but we are very, very close,” Maxwell told BBC Scotland of the prospect of reaching back-to-back European Championship finals under Clarke.
“We are a really good team and I’d be amazed if we don’t pick up more points over the rest of this campaign – and that’s what we need to do.”
On the eve of the opening Euro 2024 qualifying win over Cyprus at home in March, Clarke extended his contract to remain in charge until after the 2026 World Cup.
“The transformation under Steve and his staff is fantastic, it just highlights how good he is at his job,” Maxwell added.
“For one of the four years he’s had, he didn’t see the players at all because of Covid. Then the post-Covid international windows were three games, so he was doing no training. It was just getting ready for games.
“For me, the biggest thing was qualification for Euro 2020 meant we had a pre-tournament camp in Portugal – then during the Euros period he had the best part of three weeks with the players.
“He’s a coach, he wants to be on the grass. When he got the job, he told me, if it was clubland, he would have the team playing the way he wanted after a month.
“When he came in, all the talk was of Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson – and can they play together? Well, he fixed that.
“Timing is a factor too. At the end of Alex McLeish’s tenure, we were having conversations about right-sided centre-halves being at a premium and we didn’t have a huge amount of right-backs. Look at it now, we’ve got Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson, Ryan Porteous and Jack Hendry.
“We have real depth and the manager has managed to foster that belief and desire in a squad of 25, 27, up to 30 players.
“It’s a good thing to be a Scotland fan again. That’s what winning on the pitch does. Success breeds engagement.”
