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.