Steve Kean's passport is more like a map of the world. Which perhaps explains why the Cumbernauld-born coach, who started as a Celtic academy kid, currently finds himself in Georgia.

Not the American version, home to Atlanta and Augusta. That would be too simplistic for a man who has never been afraid to take a chance. No, Kean finds himself in Kutaisi, Georgia’s second biggest city, some 300km west of Tbilisi, where Steve Clarke will take his Scotland team on Thursday.

The Scot won’t be there to cheer them on. He’s taking advantage of the international break to visit his son in Edinburgh, back at the house he bought during his hugely successful tenure as academy director at Hibs – a secure post he left to become manager of Torpedo Kutaisi six months ago. Kean, 56, has managed Blackburn in the Premier League and coached and played in Australia, Brunei, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

That was before an obvious wanderlust dragged him away from the youth set-up at Hibs, where his reputation for developing young talent has seen players such as Rory Whittaker and Josh Landers make first-team debuts at 16 this term. Which makes the first question to Kean an obvious one. Why?

He said: “It was going to take something special to leave Hibs because I loved my time there. We had a really good group of young players coming through and it was nice to see another couple of them featuring for the first team against St Mirren in midweek. But this is a country that I hadn’t worked in and I’ve always enjoyed new challenges.

“That, and the chance to take the team into Europe were big factors. I just thought, ‘why not?’ I was getting back into a first-team environment playing in Europe. We beat Sarajevo and Aktobe from Kazakhstan and we were unfortunate to lose out and not get to the group stage of the Conference League. The team was sitting in sixth place when the chairman asked me to come in.

“He asked if we could get into the top three. We’re third at the moment and in a European spot for next year with four games to go. I was given a blank piece of paper and given the chance to bring in a few players and bring through a couple of young ones, which has been done.

“We’ve got a couple of cracking youngsters from the academy in the team now. The football club wanted to rebuild a little bit, so I was happy to speak to them and I’m so happy I’m here. The top teams are Batumi and Dinamo Tbilisi, very historic clubs. My team has won a lot of championships and cups.

“The standard is good. A lot of Brazilian players have been imported, a lot of Portuguese and some Serbs and Croats – foreign players of a very high standard. The Georgian players are incredibly technical. We have added a little organisation and structure to the way we play. But technically, they are immaculate.”

And Kean insists the language barrier has been easy to hurdle. He said: “Most of the Georgian players speak English but they appreciate I’ve learned some ‘football’ words in Georgian.

“The sports science and analysis lads speak perfect English, so in any team meetings where we go into more detail, they’ll translate it. But I’m not one for big long meetings anyway. Seven or eight minutes in a pre-match meeting is long enough.

“We do most of the work on the training ground and in the coaching sessions there is a universal language that the lads pick up. For anybody who has not been here, Georgia is a very well developed country.

“Some people might think I’m out in the back of beyond but it’s not like that. It’s a beautiful country and the people love their football. We’re the second biggest city, more of a tourist destination in the foot of the mountains, where people come to visit the cathedrals and historic buildings. It’s a beautiful place.

“We are two hours from Batumi, which is the beach resort, so people don’t come for that. But there is plenty for them to see and do in Kutaisi. I’ve had no time to enjoy it, mind you!

“In international weeks, I give the lads a few days off and I normally nip back to the UK to see my family. My wife is still in the house down south and my son is in the house that we had in Edinburgh. I’m actually going to Edinburgh to see him for a couple of days next week.”

He won’t see the Scotland game, then. But Kean has no doubts that Georgia – who have a history of making life tough for us – are going to be a hard nut to crack. Kean added: “I’m going to miss the game because it’s one of the only opportunities I’ll get to go back home before the season ends.

“It’s going to be intense, with three games left after the break. They are like three cup finals because we are in a European position at the moment and have still to play Dinamo Tbilisi, who are second and Batumi, who are sitting top.

“It will be a hard slog going into the last three weeks, so I’ll take the chance to nip back to the UK for a few days and then get back into it. The Georgian squad might change a little because they haven’t had a great campaign, so they might give a few younger players an opportunity.

“They are very patriotic and go crazy even if they’ve just won a corner! It’s great that Scotland have already qualified. It can be such a tough place to go, as Scotland has found in the past, so you don’t want to be going to Tbilisi desperate for the points. It will be a tough game for us but I do think Scotland will still win it.”