Strachan the Standout?

Gordon Strachan is expected to be unveiled as the new Scottish national team manager within the next 24 hours. The Scottish Football Association have been heavily criticised over the past 12 months due to their handling of the saga surrounding Rangers, the apparent shambles that was the firing of Craig Levein and now of course the controversial restructure of Scottish football. The current SFA administration cannot afford another failure and more importantly, the Scottish national team cannot afford to endure another period of decline. So have the SFA appointed the right man for the job this time round?

On paper, Gordon Strachan is a great candidate for the job. As a player he won numerous honours including the European Cup Winners Cup with Aberdeen, the English First Division with Leeds and the FA Cup with Man Utd. He was also an experienced international with 50 caps for Scotland including featuring, and scoring, at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. As a manager he took Southampton to the FA Cup final and UEFA Cup Qualification before taking charge at Celtic and leading them to 3 league titles and the last 16 of the Champions League on 2 occasions.

In reality, despite undeniable successes his managerial career has been a bit up and down. Despite a positive start he eventually endured relegation in his first job at Coventry. Although his time at Celtic was successful on the field, off the field this success wasn’t mirrored. Poor quality football, contempt towards the media and fans and poor signings were some of the reasons cited by Celtic fans to explain their displeasure towards Strachan being in charge. And of course his time at Middlesbrough was, quite frankly, dismal winning just 13 of 46 games before being sacked.

Despite this, what Strachan has in abundance is passion. He is passionate about Football and passionate about his Country. On the prospect of managing Scotland he said "It's quite simple really – it would be an honour to be asked to be the manager of your own national side; it's terrific." This despite being overlooked for the position when Walter Smith was appointed in 2004. Many would argue that the decline in the national teams fortunes has been predominantly down to the pool of talent available to the managers than the actual managers themselves. I would disagree with this. While Scotland does not have the pool of talent to be regularly qualifying for major tournaments I do believe that the talent currently available could be moulded into a team capable of challenging for a playoff spot. Even if you think that is optimistic, I don’t think you can doubt that the current team are better than our group placing and FIFA world ranking suggests. For a national team like Scotland it’s about building a solid team that work better together than the sum of their parts. In my opinion, especially during the Levein period, Scotland have been giving their opponents too much respect, particularly at Hampden. Too much caution shown against teams that we really should be having a go against. What we need is a bit more belief and a bit more purpose sometimes. I think a manager like Strachan could do this.

Although I believe Strachan to be a worthy of the position I will stop short of praising the SFA for such an appointment at the moment. From the moment it was accepted that Craig Levein would no longer be in charge of the Scottish team, Gordon Strachan was a standout candidate. Although let’s face it, this, in part, was due to the lack of candidates. The financial restrictions at the SFA together with a terminal Vogtsaphobia (the fear that the appointment of a non-Scottish manager will end disastrously due to past experience) means that the main source of candidates for the job are out of work Scottish managers. Strachan, Joe Jordan and Alex McLeish stood out as realistic, achievable choices. In the 71 days that have passed since Levein’s overdue dismissal, both Jordan and McLeish have taken up alternative employment, leaving Strachan the obvious frontrunner. And let’s be honest, after the past year of controversies, were the SFA ever going to try and think out of the box and appoint someone who may be considered a risk? Of course not. The selection process would have been painfully straightforward.

On the balance of it all, despite a lack of real candidates for the job, I think Scotland are incredibly fortunate to have the option of a man with a playing record that will demand respect from the current squad and relevant managerial experience to be able to handle the pressure of the position. Strachan is an experienced manager with nothing to lose and I, for one, will be behind him if he confirmed as manager in the coming days. I mean come on, he’s ‘wee’, ginger and likes a moan. If he plays the role of Scotland manager as well as he plays the role of stereotypical Scot, his time in charge is sure to be a success. Good luck Gordon.