Scots tour a wasted exercise that can’t happen again
NEVER again. That must be the official two-word postscript to a summer tour judged a qualified success, in some quarters, by dint of a woefully weakened Scotland side’s ability to avoid a footballing massacre. Twice. Well done us.
Let’s leave aside, for the moment, the question of whether any self-respecting sporting nation should meekly accept losing to ‘proper’ World Cup-bound teams by a narrow margin, on the grounds that it could have been a whole lot worse.
In defence of Alex McLeish, handed the smelly end of this stinky stick when the tour to Peru and Mexico was foisted upon him, he did pretty well to inspire a couple of ugly-but-dogged performances from a group including a number of players lucky to be anywhere near an international squad, never mind winning actual caps.
But this entire misadventure was made to look a folly from the moment that Michael O’Neill decided that he had strung the SFA along just far enough.
Call-offs then rendered it a farce. And the best that can be said about the whole experience is that a couple of nice guys got to wear a Scotland jersey, while McLeish was able to put a red pen through a few names being touted for serious consideration.
All of the above could have been achieved, however, within easier reach of Scotland. Against the kind of teams who would test our boys just as much as any South or North American opposition.
News that McLeish was willing to consider another mini-tour to the same part of the world, then, provoked an obvious response back home.
You can just imagine new SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell greeting the manager’s declaration of intent with a quick text. Something to the effect of: ‘Hi Alex. You’ve not been eating those ice cubes again, have you? Fergie warned you about that…’
Look, you can understand the general point McLeish was trying to make. With Mexico and Canada both in the running as future World Cup hosts, who knows?
Our boys might actually benefit from a little pre-tournament jaunt across the Atlantic. An ideal warm-up for a tilt at the trophy in 2026… If you’ll pardon the interruption on one small point of order, though, shouldn’t we be worrying about actually qualifying for said finals — any finals — as a priority?
To reach any major tournament, Scotland will have to come through a qualifying section containing other UEFA nations.
In order to improve our chances, then, we need to get better at competing with the tier one and two countries here in Europe. Not dashing halfway across the globe in search of something more exotic.
All the SFA have done this summer is annoy clubs and put patriotic players in a position where they had to refuse a call-up.
McLeish could have achieved just as much, perhaps more, by gathering his squad together at Oriam — you remember that place, the big performance centre we spent so much money building? — for a series of bounce matches and training sessions.
Because nothing he saw in Peru or Mexico would have come as a huge surprise.
And the inevitable shadow nature of the squad, the knowledge that very little was expected of Scotland, means it still feels as if the McLeish era has yet to begin in earnest.
He’s had four friendlies, losing three of those, seen his team score just once — and handed out 16 international debuts.
And still, because of circumstances beyond his control, we don’t have a clear idea of what he wants, how he sees Scotland playing, what clever plan he has for ending the long exile from a major finals.
We’ll find out more, hopefully, when Belgium come to Glasgow in September. Another friendly. But this one with a bit of bite to it, at least. Then it’s straight into the UEFA Nations League, with Albania and Israel — neither of whom have needed to cross the globe for high-quality ‘challenge’ matches — lying in wait.
Whatever you may think of the new competition foisted upon confused punters by European football’s governing body, it does offer a side door to qualification for the Euros themselves.
Scotland need to be ready to grasp that opportunity. Yet it feels as if we’ve wasted an entire summer, chasing unspecified aims in unsuitable locales, using a number of players unlikely to feature again.
Never again? Make that a promise.