Disaster Index: 4.1 Entry: Continuity Risk, Clarke Era Cause: Seven players from Steve Clarke's first Scotland squad, named in 2019, remain in the 2026 World Cup squad — the same system, the same manager, the same foundational personnel reaching the outer limit of a single-generation cycle. Category: Historical / Structural Evidence: Clarke's first squad was named approximately seven years before the current tournament. Of the survivors, the youngest have carried the same tactical identity across the full qualification arc. A squad built on continuity becomes, at the tournament stage, a squad whose tendencies are thoroughly documented. Historical precedent: Scotland's 1978 campaign arrived on the back of an Ally MacLeod cycle that had generated belief over a sustained run; the personnel who embodied that belief were the same personnel present when it was tested. The mechanism is not identical. The category is. Affected parties: Seven named survivors; the tactical system they have internalised; opposition analysts who have had seven years to study them. Immediate outlook: Continuity that built the qualifying campaign is now the same continuity opponents have had time to prepare for. Filed: 2026-06-22 / Pre-tournament, World Cup 2026