Scotland suffered an embarrassing 3–0 defeat to Wales at the weekend to signal the end of George Burley’s Scotland career after only 22 months in charge. This was not the first time that Burley’s position as Scotland manager had come under scrutiny, however where he had been given more time previously, time had well and truly run out for him this time around.
The headline of the Scotland job being undesirable may sound a little dramatic and inaccurate with some managers already putting their hat in the ring, it would probably have been more accurate to say why does no one with the credentials want the Scotland job?
The early favourites to land the job were Walter Smith and Craig Levein, however Smith has already said he is not interested in the post and although Levein has not yet said whether he is interested or not, it is believed that he will want to continue to manage at club level for the foreseeable future. That leaves Graeme Souness, who is said to be reluctant because he was turned down in favour of George Burley previously, and ex-players like John Collins and Gary McAllister who have had limited management experience.
The obvious next step would be to look to bring in a foreign manager to shake things up a little, however after Scotland’s bad experience with Berti Vogts the Scottish FA are said to be very reluctant to bring in a foreign coach and instead want to explore all avenues for a home grown manager.
To answer the question of why no one wants the job, I suppose the lack of talent that Scotland have in their squad at the moment as well as the number of players who have recently said they will never play for Scotland again are two huge reasons. Anyone taking the helm has to deal with all the problems and rifts that occurred during Burley’s time in charge as well as completely revamp the whole set up and go back to basics. A completely fresh approach is needed as is time, but in modern day football time is something not often given.
There have been a number of managers linked with the job, however none have been big names that will command respect in the dressing room. This was Burley’s problem, he didn’t command respect and was continually undermined until it got to the point that there was literally nothing he could do right. A strong coach, who the players will respect, is needed however with the most likely candidates already looking to have ruled themselves out it won’t be easy to find the next Scotland manager.
Written by Mark Ferguson, a sports writer who blogs about cheap football jerseys.
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