I’LL DO IT MY WAY
Smith would only take Scots job on own terms
WALTER SMITH would reject any SFA move to install a long-term successor in his backroom team if he became scotland manager again.
The Rangers legend is prepared to talk to the governing body about a return to the job he previously held between December 2004 and January 2007.
But smith, who is one of several names under serious consideration,
WALTER SMITH flies to America next Thursday to visit his brother. After that comes a cruise to celebrate his 70th birthday on February 24.
Six-and-a-half years since he last managed Rangers, life is less stressful now.
There are days when he misses the cut and thrust of it all. Mornings when he yearns to feel the competitive juices flow and embrace a new challenge.
Yet, in the aftermath of a phone call from SFA president Alan McRae asking if he would be interested in discussing the vacant Scotland job, Smith was forced to ask himself a blunt question. How much does he actually
need it? The man who leads Scotland to the Euro 2020 finals can expect the status of a national hero. The freedom of every city in the country. Yet Smith doesn’t need any more adulation. As the iconic former manager and chairman of Rangers, he’s already the star of a thousand selfies. Neither does he need the £500,000 a year the SFA would be expected to pay.
Effectively a part-time role, he and his wife Ethel would still have time for holidays. They would see plenty of the grandkids.
But the sight of his name plastered all over the front page of a newspaper on Monday morning — and the debate which followed — reminded Smith of the aspects of the job he doesn’t miss. The calls from journalists. The tribal squabbling between those who think he’s a footballing messiah and those who think he’s yesterday’s news. And the drawn-out indecision of the SFA. It’s too early to buy a suit for the coronation just yet.
‘If it’s in your blood and you love the game and you’re passionate, it’s very difficult just to drop football from your life,’ said former Scotland defender Jackie McNamara at a William Hill media event at Hampden yesterday.
‘If you have been so much involved in it from playing to management and other things, it’s part of your everyday life and to just suddenly stop, it’s difficult.’
Smith’s retreat from the front line of Scottish football has been anything but sudden, of course.
Leaving Rangers after winning his final title in May 2011, it’s now six-and-a-half years since he last coached a team and many would regard his appointment as a retrospective step. McNamara dismisses the notion that a man closer to 70 than 69 is too long in the tooth to do the job.
‘No, not at all,’ argued the former full-back. ‘There are other examples of that. Look at Roy Hodgson. He had been out of the dugout for a little bit and now he’s back in.
‘I don’t know if Walter wants to do it, but there is no reason why he couldn’t step in. He won’t have forgotten anything and it isn’t as if he hasn’t been to the games.’
A sharp departure from the SFA’s pursuit of Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill, their approach to Smith raises questions over the decision to dispense with Gordon Strachan. It also opens up a fresh dispute between the new radicals who want Scottish football to take a fresh path and the traditionalists who think he’s the obvious man to lead the national team to the Euro 2020 finals. Assuming he wants it.
‘I think he would do a good job,’ added McNamara, an international defender during Smith’s spell at the helm. ‘I enjoyed working with him when I played under him with Scotland.
‘Walter’s been successful and he’s worked with the best Scottish managers.
‘Success is what we need. We need to qualify, we need someone to get the best out of the current group of players.
‘Being Scotland manager is different. You are only working with the players a few times a year.
‘You need to prepare them and give them information. They don’t need to be coached. They need to be maintained and motivated.
‘You need to be able to set them up for the importance of the match, keep them focused and calm so they can go out and play their normal game.
‘There are a lot of good candidates there who could come in as well, a lot of people mentioned. We will wait and see if Walter takes it.’
He has yet to be offered it, of course.
After the resignation of Stewart Regan as chief executive at an SFA board meeting last Thursday, the sub-committee responsible for recommending a new Scotland manager held a meeting.
Later that night, performance director Malky Mackay was detailed to call Smith and ask if he would be open to coming out of retirement for a second crack at the job he held between December 2004 and January 2007.
A follow-up call from McRae on Monday night ended in an invitation to talks, but no offer of a job.
Until the full SFA board agree on a preferred candidate — and they have three or four in mind — former Cove Rangers chairman McRae has no authority to offer the job to anyone.
And Smith is reluctant to get involved in a lengthy saga. Or to entertain the idea of having a younger coach he doesn’t know imposed on his backroom staff as part of a succession plan beyond the end of the next qualifying campaign, when he’ll be 72.
IF the SFA want him, they have until next Thursday — when he and his wife fly to the United States for the big birthday cruise — to firm something up.
Sources at the governing body say there’s a process to be followed; other candidates in the frame.
Since last Thursday, the SFA have been inundated with notes of interest from agents.
Yet the frontrunners are clear. Kilmarnock’s Steve Clarke and Under-21s coach Scot Gemmill have been mentioned. McNamara also thinks Rod Petrie of the SFA could do worse than call Rod Petrie of Hibs for a chat over his manager Neil Lennon.
‘I was asked the question the other week there about Lenny,’ said McNamara. ‘There are a few others. Lenny, Steve Clarke has done a great job at Kilmarnock. I don’t think anybody will really care who comes in as long as we qualify. That is really the most important thing to take the country forward.’