Reganomics don’t add up
PRESSURE ON HAMPDEN CHIEF Strachan was binned for bombing in two campaigns but man who appointed him has survived four
GORDON STRACHAN lost his job because he failed to meet the target set by the SFA board. Twice.
But ask the man who set those targets about his own record of failure – double Strachan’s flops in terms of campaigns – and suddenly the criteria shifts.
In his seven years as chief executive of the SFA, Stewart Regan has presided over four failed qualifying attempts at the cost of two managers – Craig Levein and Strachan, below right.
We could, he revealed, be eight months away from discovering the identity of the next man to fill the manager’s role but Regan has already made his remit abundantly clear.
A place in the finals of the European Championships in 2020, which will be co-hosted by Glasgow among a number of European cities, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition.
Of all the messages that Regan preached at Hampden yesterday, that’s the one that rang loudest and clearest.
Yet ask him if his position at the summit of Scottish football will be so clearly – and possibly brutally – judged on results in the same manner as the new manager and the two scapegoats who were sacrificed before him . . .
Suggest to Regan that overseeing a fifth failed campaign from his ivory tower would represent a line in the sand for his own stewardship of the game . . .
Well, judge for yourself whether his 2020 vision includes a magnified focus upon his own role.
He said: “This is not about me. This is about us as a board, planning the resources we’ve got to do the right thing. We will continue to do that, to put in place the right plans to get those results.
“We were 45 minutes away from qualifying for the play-offs which would have been a remarkable achievement given where we were this time last year.
“There is a collective responsibility whenever you run an organisation where you’re looking at targets and looking at achievements. As a board we are responsible for trying to put in place all the necessary processes, people, resources – both financial and otherwise – in order to try and get there.
“We have come very close to making progress, unfortunately it hasn’t been enough.
“It’s our responsibility as a board to try and do what we think is the right thing to do to get us to the next level. That’s what we’ve done, that’s the next step.”
In fairness, the SFA’s decision not to renew Strachan’s contract has been widely welcomed by many Scotland supporters who had grown disillusioned with the manager – from his tactics and team selection to his ill-advised flippant demeanour in post-match press conferences.
For an organisation so often condemned for not being proactive, Regan and his colleagues have taken a quick, decisive step to make a change. Even if it was one of the hardest moments of the chief executive’s career telling Strachan that he was out.
Regan added: “It was a really tough day, a really difficult decision for all of us. Gordon is a Scottish legend as a player and as a manager and a coach. He got to know the staff in here very, very well.
“There were a lot of people in here who were upset with yesterday’s decision. But we felt it was the right thing to do. We felt we had backed him after the Slovakia and England defeats with the proviso that we made the play-offs at least.
“That was our stated ambition as a board. We never came out publicly and said that – it would have put too much pressure in play. But if you look back and see Gordon’s quote at the time, he said ‘I genuinely believe we can reach the play-offs and I’m the man to turn this round.’
“That quote was a result of us discussing with him what his feeling was after two defeats. He genuinely – and we believed him at the time – believed he could turn things around.
“To be fair, we were 45 minutes from beating Slovenia and reaching the play-offs.
“Afterwards we reviewed that position as a board and decided that, after two unsuccessful campaigns, it was time for a change. It was with a heavy heart we made the decision, but we felt it was the right one for the Scottish FA in the longer term. “Gordon and his management team deserve a great deal of credit for the way they went about their business in the second half of the campaign. They really did turn things around and came very close. “But we didn’t get to a major tournament and we have taken the chance at the end of a contract period not to renew that contract. “Ultimately football is a results business. We are still waiting to qualify for a major championship and felt we needed to have a new impetus and a new coach to try and get us to Euro 2020. “That’s a key date for us as Hampden will be the host for the 60th anniversary of the European Championships – and we would like to think that Scotland will qualify and play two of the four games here as one of the 24 participants. “That will be at the top of the priorities for the new manager who will be told in no uncertain terms that is our ambition. “We want to play in that tournament here at Hampden.” ‘Or else’, he stopped just short of saying but the tone of Regan’s rhetoric made it ominously clear. Another failure, another crushing disappointment will not be tolerated – as he might even discover for himself if his next big decision fails to meet his own demands.
STEWART REGAN