The beer was bad in America. That much is settled fact among the Tartan Army foot soldiers now filtering back into Glasgow. Student Rowan Stevenson knew it before his brother Rory even cleared customs at the airport Monday.
He met the flight from New York with a tray of Tennent’s Lager and Irn Bru. A tactical resupply for troops complaining about the quality of American beer.
The hangover has begun. Scotland’s World Cup ride ended in bitter defeat. Manager Steve Clarke resigned.
The party is over. What comes next is the risk: reintegration.
Rowan Stevenson, 19, thought his brother and the others might need a bit of help. “The boys had been complaining about the beer in America so I thought I’d give them a nice Scottish welcome,” he said. “They’ve had the time of their lives but I thought they might need a bit of help to re-integrate themselves.” Rory Stevenson, 21, and his pal Callum Hand, also 21, just graduated from Edinburgh University with degrees in finance and economics.
Their three-week World Cup odyssey cost saved cash. Cash they believe was well spent. “This trip has been unbelievable, just one long party to be honest, but it has been an incredible experience,” Rory said.
“We did moan a bit about the beer out there so it was nice of Rowan to think of us like that.” The detail that matters: this was not just a football trip. It was a graduation blow-out.
Callum framed it as such. “This was a bit of a blow-out but we decided to treat it as one big graduation party,” he said. The timing — leaving university and heading straight for the World Cup — suggests a generation marking a transition before the job market beckons.
Under the hood of the celebration, however, lies the sting of defeat. Scotland lost their commander in chief.
Manager Steve Clarke resigned after the team’s exit. The Tartan Army is returning to a country that did not win. The party is over.
The laundry pile is waiting. What could go wrong next is the quiet part. These graduates spent three weeks in a bubble of football and cheap beer.
The American beer was bad. The Scottish beer is good.
But the job market in Scotland is not a party. The degrees in finance and economics from Edinburgh University are real. So are the student loans.
So is the reality of sending out CVs after three weeks of partying. Callum Hand and Rory Stevenson treated the World Cup as one big graduation party.
That is a specific choice. It is a risk. The risk is that the transition from university to the job market is harder when you come back from a three-week party in a different country.
The risk is that the hangover is not just from bad American beer. Rowan Stevenson understood this. He met the flight with a tray of Tennent’s Lager and Irn Bru.
A nice Scottish welcome. A bit of help to re-integrate themselves.
The question is whether a tray of lager and a bottle of Irn Bru is enough to bridge the gap between a World Cup blow-out and the reality of the Scottish job market. The Tartan Army foot soldiers are touching down on home soil. They are swapping party heads for the grim reality of work and laundry.
The hangover has begun. The risk is that the hangover lasts longer than the party.
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