BIG ECK’S PLEDGE I’ll win back the Tartan Army
McLEISH VOWS TO WIN OVER TARTAN ARMY
ALEX McLEISH has vowed to win back the Tartan Army as he declared the Scotland job his destiny.
McLeish insists he has unfinished business as he was paraded at Hampden yesterday, more than a decade after he walked out on the national team to join Birmingham.
The SFA turned to the 59-year-old after being snubbed by Michael O’Neill and Walter Smith and the
ALEX McLEISH punched the air with delight when Michael O’Neill knocked back the Scotland job then held his head in his hands when Walter Smith entered the fray.
If the Tartan Army have been put through the mill after the longest recruitment process since Sir Alan Sugar first pitched The Apprentice it’s nothing compared to the emotional upheaval in the life of the new Scotland boss.
McLeish, typically, met everything head on at Hampden yesterday just as he did as a player in more than 700 appearances for Aberdeen that earned him 77 caps.
He claimed it was his destiny to return to the job, despite criticism from the Tartan Army, and lead the national team to Euro 2020.
The flame of his red hair may have softened over the years into salt and pepper locks but the passion and desire for success burn as brightly as before.
Clenching his right fist and raising it into the air when asked for his emotions over the last few weeks he said: “One was, ‘Ya beauty’, the next one was, ‘Oh, Walter’s getting it’.
“Then Walter abdicated and I thought, ‘I’m in again’. Honestly, I felt it was fate. It was meant to happen. Michael was the first choice, let’s not make any bones about that, but I have always felt I was the right guy to be the next Scotland coach.
“Why am I coming back? It’s in the genes. It’s in the DNA. I live not far from Chelsea’s ground and I go to a lot of their games. I’ve seen Antonio Conte doing his 4-4-2 and 3-4-3 and his change of formations. It’s been interesting watching Chelsea for a year and a half.
“When you go to the games you say, ‘Well, I’ve coached at that level’. Not Chelsea admittedly but when you consider the players I had at Rangers in terms of Arthur Numan and Co I had that standard. You say, ‘I’ve got to get back in there’.”
At 59 most of his recent time has been spent at his family home in Fulham in an enforced semiretirement. He has been working as a consultant recently in a move to take over Charlton and media work has also kept him busy, although he has never lost his desire to return to the sharp end of management, even if he has knocked back a couple of jobs that didn’t feel right.
Mobile phone operators will tie you into a contract longer than the two-year deal dangled under McLeish’s nose by the SFA but he’s determined to deliver.
McLeish added: “Of course you have those ambitions. You have to think like that. These are the kind of feelings and self-belief I’ve always had.
“Yes, I only have one campaign to get it right – and that’s brilliant. There is pressure there but there is always pressure when you’re in a football job.
“It gives you a goal. The reason I turned a few jobs down over the last couple of years was because it was firefighting again.
“But I’ve got a really good chance of success in a job like this and there’s no greater feeling than
I live near Chelsea’s ground and go to their games. I’ve