A TICKING TIME BROM
Baggies’ O’Neill interest threatens to blow up in Regan’s face while Ibrox dithering could prove very costly too
THEY say there’s a fine art to picking a football manager. But right now both Rangers and the SFA are in serious danger of doing it by crayon. When Stewart Regan picked up his Sunday papers the national association’s accident prone chief executive may have experienced another one of his Frank Spencer moments. The news West Brom may be about to gazump his move for Michael O’Neill – coming just a day or two after he nailed Scotland’s colours to the Northern Irishman’s mast – will have sent a familiar chill shooting down Regan’s spine. It was possible to picture him slumped over the breakfast table, the colour draining from his face while spluttering into his mug of morning tea, “Don’t tell me, I’ve gone and done a whoopsie again!” Having pulled the trigger on Gordon Strachan – who was already the right man in the right place – Regan now finds himself in a monumental pickle.
His mishandling of the Malky Mackay situation, which was among the most awkward and cringeworthy of his time in charge, has merely ramped up the pressure to fever pitch.
Having singled out O’Neill as Strachan’s replacement, Regan had better make sure he delivers.
So the potential arrival of West Brom on the scene could not have come at a more inappropriate moment. If they opt to sever ties with Tony Pulis and if it is true O’Neill is man they want – and for the time being that has to be viewed as a capital IF – then it’s difficult to see how Regan can wriggle out of this mess with any remaining credibility.
It has been widely reported Pulis has been pulling in upwards of £2million a year to bring his averageness to the Hawthorns and if they would be willing to offer O’Neill the same then Regan could spend the rest of the week digging down the back of every sofa on Hampden’s sixth floor and he still won’t come close to matching it.
He would then have to hope against hope O’Neill is not motivated by money alone. Perhaps that he has grown so comfortable in the dressing gown and slippers of international management he has no great desire to throw himself into the comparative frenzy of club football at the highest level.
It would be utterly remarkable if a man whose only previous experience on the frontline came at Brechin and Shamrock Rovers turned such an opportunity down. It would also leave a huge question mark hanging over the extent of O’Neill’s ambition.
And what would that say about
his credentials to become the next manager of Scotland? Or, by extension, Regan’s decision making and his rush to go so publicly chasing after O’Neill?
The passing of O’Neill’s mother Patricia means any thoughts about his future will understandably be put on hold.
But if West Brom eventually step in and sweep Regan’s man off his feet how do the SFA make the next target feel wanted when he knows he was second choice at best.
And that’s not certain either because there was a school of thought – in fact a deep suspicion – around the time of Strachan’s departure that Regan had already been caught quietly fluttering his eyelids at David Moyes.
Only for Moyes to do the dirty on him for the equivalent of a one-night stand with West Ham. So, yes, there is a danger the SFA will get themselves into an almighty mess and Regan will have to move to prevent this situation from descending into a farce.
That brings us back to Rangers and the hunt for Pedro Caixinha’s replacement which is now rumbling towards a fourth week without any indication of consensus being reached inside the board room.
A fortnight ago on these very pages chairman Dave King was warned not to take Derek McInnes for granted just because the Aberdeen boss has Rangers written into his DNA.
McInnes remains the obvious, outstanding candidate but what must he be thinking now after all this time has lapsed without Rangers making their move?
Little wonder, after the defeat at home to Motherwell, that he ducked out of Pittodrie without fulfilling his post-match media duties.
There is only so much McInnes can say without backing himself into a corner with his own club’s support.
It’s an uncomfortable and unenviable position for McInnes who in many ways is becoming the victim of a chronic lack of cohesion at the top of the Ibrox staircase.
The same could be said of caretaker boss Graeme Murty who has been left holding the baby while fielding questions about his own ambitions.
On Friday, Murty made it clear he wants to be considered for the position. By tea time the following day his players were being booed off the pitch after losing a league game against Hamilton at Ibrox for the first time in 91 years. The suggestion Murty ought to be considered as a genuine candidate to oversee a task of such enormity is frankly absurd. But the longer his superiors stall the more awkward his situation becomes. They have been inundated with calls and emails and are terrified of making another bad managerial choice. By sifting carefully through every option they may believe they are being thorough and professional. But there comes a point when it lurches into hesitancy and when this clear lack of leadership makes them appear amateurish.
They may well have uncovered a better option than McInnes but if they have done surely by now they should be acting to appoint him.
But if they have still not identified a more qualified candidate logic dictates they must surely be reaching the conclusion McInnes is indeed the man.
One way or another Rangers need to grab the bull by the horns. The longer they prevaricate the more difficult they make the job of picking a good manager appear to be.
That the SFA should find themselves in a strikingly similar position at the same time should come as a timely reminder to the Rangers board.
The thought they might be beaten to the punch by Regan should provide them with all the motivation they need.