TIME FOR SFA TO SHOW SOME VISION AND SEE PAST THE TIRED OLD FACES

WANTED: Miracle worker. Must be able to cope with ridicule. A sneak peak at the newly reissued recruitment advert for the Scotland manager’s post? No. But it might be a line from an internal memo being circulated at Hampden — inviting volunteers to lead the revived search for a new head coach.

Alas, the SFA boast no such sorcerers within their ranks. In truth, they appear to be so short of basic street smarts that even meeting the dwindling expectations of this beaten and broken footballing nation may prove beyond them.

Few will envy them their task. Fewer, still, will expect the mocking laughter generated by yesterday’s developments to be silenced by a swift and spectacular showstopper of an appointment.

All will be hoping that the brains trust of Stewart Regan, Alan McRae, Rod Petrie and Ian Maxwell have something bold in mind for their next step.

If it’s to work their way down an all-Scottish list of familiar faces with flat-lining careers, we’ll know that the problems of leadership at the SFA run deeper than anyone ever suspected.

Because whatever credit they retain for at least trying to land Michael O’Neill would evaporate the instant they settle for someone without a fraction of his Scotland-ready skills.

The decision to go for O’Neill showed good instincts. Atrocious execution shouldn’t obliterate that fact.

But to compound one calamitous procedural cock-up by changing their recruitment criteria, just to fit a lesser candidate? That would be unforgivable.

It’s only natural that the SFA should be tempted to shrink from the big, bad world of the international market place, with its mercenary managers and their wicked ways.

Understandable that they might be moved to return to some locallysourced, guaranteed-to-say-yes list of coaches closer to home.

Bring back Alex McLeish. Give it to Steve Clarke, Tommy Wright, Stuart McCall… Billy Davies. Give us strength.

There are still foreign hired guns out there with track records of taking small to medium-sized nations to major finals. Some are between jobs, others are under contract but open to offers.

Cesare Prandelli has apparently expressed interest but, to be honest, managing Italy isn’t quite the same as taking charge of our boys; ask Berti Vogts about the step down in class from a world superpower.

Allowing Gordon Strachan to linger on meant we missed out on Lars Lagerback. But Gianni de Biasi, who took Albania to their one and only major finals at Euro 2016, is back on the market after an admittedly disastrous spell with Alavés in Spain.

Anyone with a working knowledge of the world game will be able to point the SFA in the direction of guys with similar CVs. Troubleshooters. For a nation in trouble.

Of the names being widely touted, however, only McLeish — who did a good, if brief, job with Scotland last time around — comes close to fitting the bill.

The feeling is that Regan, under pressure to justify his own continued employment, will be led by his fellow committee members back towards safer ground.

But it would be a horrible mistake to restrict the search to people who inspire a degree of comfort in contract negotiations, yet leave fans — and possibly even players — uninspired.

Yesterday’s official SFA statement spoke of working their way down ‘The List’. And we’ve been told repeatedly that there is an index of potential managers lined up.

It seems pretty clear, however, that the qualities most attractive about O’Neill — a track record of success with a nation considered roughly equal to Scotland — aren’t shared by many others on that list.

Indeed, Sportsmail understands that the one criteria considered an absolute must by so many — international experience — isn’t being applied rigidly by the recruitment sub-committee.

So they’d be quite comfortable, it seems, with entrusting the fate of our national team to a club manager who would take six months to find his feet, another six to figure out how to fill his spare time — and perhaps be au fait with the niceties of qualification campaigns in time for a tilt at the 2022 World Cup.

Considering the track record of even outstanding club bosses in failing to adapt, wouldn’t a repetition of that pattern fit the definition of insanity? One of the problems, of course, is that even the fools rushing in for interviews will know that they’re second choice. At best.

If there were drawbacks in having a Scotland manager who thought he was doing us all a favour just by taking the job, any new man coming in now will instantly be viewed as a rather sorry consolation prize.

And he’ll be compared not just against his predecessors — but by what we think O’Neill would’ve done.

There isn’t much chance of anyone keeping a straight face should Regan, assuming he survives, land a new gaffer and begin extolling the qualities of the ‘best man for the job’. At the moment, the world is laughing at Scotland — and there isn’t much we can offer by way of a witty comeback.

SFA chief executive Regan and president McRae are in Switzerland at the moment, rubbing shoulders with the bang and the average of European football ahead of UEFA’s Nations League draw tomorrow.

They’ll be the guys with their heads down, studiously avoiding eye contact with their IFA counterparts. Working their way through that magical list.

And possibly wondering why they didn’t put together a more inspiring list of alternatives.

Because the same old, same old won’t do. Not again.