STEVE CLARKE has revealed Scotland are 'a long way down the road' to securing their base for the European Championships as he prepares to take his squad to England next summer.

Clarke's side reached the finals with their dramatic shoot-out victory over Serbia last month and the Hampden boss is now putting plans in place for the Group D campaign.

Scotland will face the Czech Republic and Croatia in Glasgow either side of the clash with England at Wembley on June 18 as the national squad look to become the first to reach the knockout stages of a major finals.

Both of Clarke's initial choices for a training HQ on home soil have already been secured and Scotland will now head across the border for the duration of their stay in the competition.

Clarke said: "We will try to get all the plans done and dusted before March so that we can concentrate on the qualifiers.

"We are a long way down the road in getting a training base.

"We are pretty much certain that we will be based in the north of England. So we are leaving Scotland to prepare.

"We haven’t got Oriam which is our base. The Czech Republic had first crack at it and decided to use that facility.

"The Croatians have taken St Andrews which would have been a good facility for us.

"We looked at what else was around in Scotland and thought about the fact I want to be in a good camp where we can focus. We are not going to the Euros just to play the group games – we want to get out of the group.

"We want to be the first Scotland team to get to the knock-out stage of a major tournament.

"Just going a way a little bit further, a little bit more isolated will give us that opportunity to prepare properly.

"You’ve used the word mayhem and that might be the case. Hopefully everybody is a bit more active, a little more out and about when we get to the summer months.

"I think being away from it, being detached, will benefit us in terms of preparation and making sure we are ready for the matches.

"Because like I say we want to be the first Scottish national team, men’s national team, that gets out of the group and into the knock-out stages. That would be fantastic."