Strachan’s Scotland position hangs in the balance
GORDON STRACHAN will decide over the next 48 hours whether he wishes to fight for his place as Scotland manager.
The 59- year- old is considering his options after seeing the country slump to fifth in their World Cup qualifying group off the back of defeat to England.
However, even if he decides he wants to stay, his job is not assured, with his future to be thrashed out in meetings with SFA chiefs.
And there he will have to explain to his employers, starting with Chief Executive Stewart Regan, exactly how he proposes to turn the campaign around.
They have noted growing dissent among members of the Tartan Army and view the current run of results – which has seen Scotland pick up just four points from four games–as unsustainable.
Having been supportive in the past, they are likely to stress not just good performances are enough. The results have to be right, too.
“At this moment in time, it’s very hard for me to talk of this,” said Strachan.
“I say that because my job is to look after the players and make them better.
“I’m 59. It might be different if I was 35 but all I want to do is get people to a tournament and enjoy it. “That’s all I want. “When I look at them after a result like that, you feel like a dad whose kid has
been bullied at school or something. It’s not right and that’s the way I am feeling with these lads just now.
“I’m not feeling as bad as I have done, strangely. I’ve seen a lot of things, even the Slovakia game.
“But out there, they were brave, they didn’t sit in, they made chances.
“There were some terrific performances.
“I remember losing 2-0 at Wembley (in 1983) and we were sneaking out the door, literally, because it was woeful, inept, no shots at goal. “This time was different.” Different, yet from a supporter’s perspective, all too familiar.
England weren’t obviously better in open play on Friday.
“But a team that concedes cheap goals with the regularity Scotland do is always going to struggle,” said Strachan.
“For though it was heartening to see several decent chances created, they weren’t put away.
“The first one you can’t really prepare for when you get a deflection like that.
“There’s a point where you have to hold your hands up and say: ‘OK’,” argued Strachan.
“Anything they came up with, we dealt with.
“The shot and deflection and then it coming back in quick is disorientating, and then what you get is world- class players going and putting headers in the back of the net, where we’ve had headers that go over the bar.
“It’s easy for me sitting there. Imagine being out there when that’s happening and having to go again.”
The key question remains, will the manager himself choose to stick or twist?
“What I’ve got to do now is go and see my family, make sure they are all right, because they feel for me,” he said.
“Then there will be a debrief with the people I work with and that will happen whenever we want a chat.
“The speculation about my future? I don’t see all those things. I have an understanding of what’s going on. I’m not daft.
“I’ve never seen telly this week or a paper. It’s like being in a crash, you don’t look at the crash.
“The reality is all-consuming.”