ON SIR ALEX
leading your country.” He came agonisingly close before, taking Scotland to within a whisker of Euro 2008.
The Scots lost their final group tie in controversial circumstances, downed 2-1 in the last minute to a Christian Panucci header.
It won’t escape McLeish’s attentions that Panucci is boss of Albania, one of our UEFA Nations League rivals, but he can’t forget a James McFadden miss 10 minutes from time when the game was delicately poised at 1-1.
He said: “I was so gutted that we missed it by a whisker. Faddy had a wee chance when the ball came across the box and he slid at it. Your life flashes in front of your eyes.
“I remember there were rumours I might be offered the job first time around and I initially thought I was too young.
“Then I looked around and saw there were other younger coaches taking charge of their countries. It was a wee trend at the time.
“When you get that call it’s hard to say no. I don’t think it was too early. I tried to carry on the momentum there was at the time under Walter Smith. We did that to an extent and just failed at the final hurdle. Gordon was unlucky at the final hurdle as well and it’s now time to get over that.”
McLeish remains defiant about the manner of his departure, just 48 hours after he had attended the draw for the 2010 World Cup.
The SFA refused him permission to speak to Birmingham so he resigned and even if his Hampden bosses picked up around £1million in compensation the nature of it all was unedifying to many.
He said: “I had seven months to wait before the next tournament started. I would have been a professional supporter, watching all the games, watching all the players up and down the country but I missed the day-to-day stuff.
“There was an element of thinking I was still young enough to take that challenge on. To be asked to go to the Premier League is an ambition a lot of managers would have taken, probably the majority.
“It was totally professional. Listen, if a team had come in for me when we had just qualified there is no way I would have left. I would have seen us right through to the finals, ambition or not.” McLEISH has let the cat out the bag – Sir Alex Ferguson was the Scotland manager the SFA wanted all along.
SFA president Alan McRae is a long-term friend of the former Aberdeen and Manchester United manager and has frequently sought his counsel. But McLeish said: “I think Alan wanted Sir Alex as a No.1 but he would never have come back.
“I’m in touch with Sir Alex. I had lunch with him recently and he said this would be a great job for me.
“Then when Michael O’Neill turned it down he put a word in saying, ‘Why don’t you go for Alex?’ You can blame him if I fail!”
coached at that level and it’s good to be back