SFAagree cool-off timeover Gordfuture
NO decision on Gordon Strachan’s future as Scotland manager is expected before next week with both the 60-year-old and the SFA set to take time to reflect on another failed campaign.
Strachan’s side came up just short in their bid to qualify for the Russia 2018 play-offs when they drew their final Group F match against Slovenia 2-2 in Ljubljana on Sunday night.
The former Celtic and Middlesbrough manager will spend the coming days considering his next move and speaking to members of his family as well as friends in the game about his best course of action.
The members of the SFA board, too, will allow the raw emotion of the Slovenia result to subside before discussing whether Strachan will lead them in Euro 2020. The 50-times capped midfielder, who took over from Craig Levein back at the start of 2013, is
only under contract until next month. His side failed to secure a Euro 2016 play-off place and were pipped to second spot in their Russia 2018 qualifying group by Slovakia on goal difference despite winning 14 of their last 18 points.
Many members of the Tartan Army would like to see Strachan replaced and Paul Lambert, Derek McInnes, Alex McLeish, Davie Moyes and Michael O’Neill have all been touted as possible successors.
If Strachan decides that he wants to continue then there is no guarantee he will be offered a new deal by Scottish football’s governing body who may decide that a change is required after four and a half years.
Meanwhile, Strachan has denied that Scotland’s failure to secure a Russia 2018 play-off place was “rock bottom” and insisted there are reasons to be optimistic ahead of the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.
“We all know it isn’t rock bottom,” he said. “I remember playing against Uruguay (in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico). It was 0-0. I’m not saying we didn’t try, but there wasn’t that kind of effort to it. We went home saying: ‘That’s it, we’re out’. I think this is a lot different.
“The guys must be feeling incredibly low and I think they should be allowed to feel that way for the work they have put in over the last year.
“Me? It’s not like that at all. Sometimes you come away as a manager, and I’ve been there, thinking ‘Where do we go from here? What do we do?’
“Far from it. If you look at the guys who didn’t get playing tonight (first team regulars Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown and James Morrison all missed out due to injury), what happened and how we went about it.
“We have finished the campaign losing out on goal difference to a very good side, scoring two goals here against a team nobody had scored against them.
“So it isn’t that blank moment that I’ve had a few times in my career.
“I’m 60 years old. I’ve been to places that are a lot lower than this. Pride in the lads is numbing any real disappointment.
“The players, when they think about it, should regard it as a great experience because they know where they can push themselves to.”
When it was suggested he is still relatively young for a football manager, he said: Compared to some, yes. I feel fine, I feel fit.
“I speak to Alex Smith (the former Aberdeen manager who spent a brief spell as Falkirk caretaker manager at the age of 77 last month) a lot. Do you think I’m going to do this for another 17 years?”