McClair fiasco is stranger than fiction
NOT since JK Rowling decided it might be worth giving those Harry Potter books another whirl has there been such a degree of pre-publication hype.
Now, however, it seems the grand blueprint for the future of youth football prepared by Brian McClair, a man who has been less forthcoming on his movements than Dumbledore himself, may never make it beyond the boardrooms of the senior game.
McClair’s decision to walk away from the Scottish FA without any kind of proper explanation was in keeping with the low profile he adopted throughout his time as performance director.
It makes you speculate on how strong the resistance has been to his reported plans to, among other things, reduce the number of youth academies by a third and introduce a draft-style system to send players on loan to the division below. It makes you speculate on how much of it will be enforceable going forward.
The whole sorry mess also makes you speculate on what happens next with Gordon Strachan. The national coach worked closely with McClair on this plan. It had become a passion. His friend and former team-mate’s decision to up sticks and walk away from it all must be a huge disappointment.
Was Strachan’s tired demeanour around the time of those friendlies with Italy and France connected to McClair’s failure to make a difference?
No one can fancy Scotland to qualify for the next World Cup. Might Strachan soon come to the conclusion he is looking for something different, too?