TAKING FLIGHT?
Strachan heads to Portugal to ponder his Scotland future SFA to consider interim appointment if he departs EXCLUSIVE
GORDON STRACHAN has flown to Portugal to consider his future as Scotland manager.
the 59-year-old will be back for an SFa debrief on Friday to discuss the 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley, which saw the national team slide to fifth place in Group F in their World cup qualification campaign.
But he will take the next 48 hours to play golf and ponder whether he wants to continue in a job he has occupied for the last four years. concerned by a deterioration in recent performances, members of the SFa board believe the decision can no longer be a one-way street.
the governing body will seek clarification on whether the manager wants to continue. and, if he does, how he proposes to change things.
If he goes, Sportsmail understands influential figures within the SFa also favour an interim appointment until the end of the campaign, with an out of work or part-time manager fulfilling the national team’s fixtures until a more permanent arrangement can be reached.
alex McLeish is the current bookmakers’ favourite after taking the national team to the brink of the European
TONIGHT’s second anniversary of an epic scotland victory over the Republic of Ireland will be a time for sober reflection. The past few days have reminded us that football isn’t life and death. It’s not war. But a 1-0 win back on November 14, 2014 felt like a significant skirmish. The high-water mark for scotland’s national team and the current manager.
As manager of Celtic, Gordon strachan found predecessor Martin O’Neill’s shadow difficult to shake off.
The Northern Irishman never led the club to the last 16 of the Champions League; strachan did. Yet, his feats as Celtic manager were always followed by an ‘Ah, but…’
shaun Maloney’s thrilling winner that night at Celtic Park, then, felt like progress. In the aftermath, O’Neill looked a chastened, beaten man. A coach out of time and ideas.
Fast-forward 24 months and we survey a different scene.
O’Neill is a rejuvenated figure. strachan is weighing up his scotland future on a golfing trip to Portugal. And the shadow is back.
On saturday, the Republic earned a terrific 1-0 win in Austria. After four games in Group D, they sit on 10 points, top of the table above serbia and Wales. They are on the rise.
No one would have seen that coming after Maloney’s sublime strike. The Irish didn’t look up to much that night. They dropped four points out of six against scotland in that European Championships qualifying campaign and could, should, have finished fourth. But O’Neill took a squad of players and wrung out every last ounce.
From a team which lost nine goals in two games to Germany in qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, the Irish then sunk their nemesis to pip the scots to a Euro 2016 play-off place and reach the finals. They were a team who would have gotten football stopped, but they found a way to win.
Are Ireland better than scotland? Results suggest they are. should they be? Not necessarily.
The Ireland squad, like scotland’s, is full of English Championship players. Men who earn a living at the Blackburns, Derbys and Ipswich Towns of this world. They’re no superstars. The same can be said of Northern Ireland.
Michael O’Neill hardly has a production line of players to call on. In the Under-21 qualifiers just ended, they were the only team to finish below scotland. The colts team didn’t win a game.
In Euro 2012 qualification, the senior side lost 4-1 to Estonia and, not so long ago, the streets of Belfast echoed to the same cries as Glasgow on saturday night.
‘We don’t have the players’ went the mantra. But Michael O’Neill — like his namesake Martin — found a way to win.
On Friday night, they thumped Azerbaijan 4-0 to jump into second place in their qualifying group. They are above both Czech Republic and Norway and have scored 11 goals in their last three home games.
Michael McGovern and Josh Magennis, meat and drink sPFL players until very recently, are regular starters.
In Gareth McAuley and Jonny Evans, they have a strong, cohesive central defence. That explains why they have now gone five home games at Windsor Park without conceding.
Contrast that to scotland, a side which has now shipped seven goals in their last three games. Currently fifth in our group, another major tournament is slipping away.
In contrast with the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the chances of reaching Russia 2018 are receding fast into the distance. Two years since that pulsating win over the Republic, the team is going backwards. And the finger of blame is now pointing at the manager.
There is something fundamentally unfair in this. scotland’s demise as a national team over two decades isn’t solely down to Gordon strachan.
He is only a part of the systemic problems afflicting scottish football.
The sFA are seeking a third performance director in three years, the Under-21 side has failed in 11 consecutive qualifying campaigns and the national team is a basketcase.
The next manager will inherit the same personnel problems which saw scotland travel to Wembley with one recognised right-back in Callum Paterson of Hearts and an English Championship central defensive pairing of Christophe Berra and Grant Hanley.
England had three efforts on target and scored all of them — and from three headers.
scotland had three outstanding chances and took none of them.
When a team can’t finish and toils to master the basics in defence, it’s tempting to give the manager a free pass.
What can he do? He doesn’t have the players.
But they said all this about Northern Ireland when they were drawing 1-1 with the Faroe Islands. They said it in the Republic when they lost 6-1 to the Germans. They said it the night they lost 1-0 to scotland at Celtic Park.
Make no mistake, in key areas of the pitch, Martin and Michael O’Neill have assets strachan can only dream of. English Premier League central defenders for a start. scotland’s manager can’t delve into the transfer market and buy a Jonny Evans or a John O’shea. He has to work with what he has.
But, two years ago, strachan
was getting results. And with the same group of players.
He sunk Georgia 1-0 at Ibrox. Drew 2-2 in Warsaw for a crucial point. Then toppled the Irish.
It’s gone downhill since then and the question is why?
It’s not for the want of trying. strachan went for broke at Wembley. He made the changes people wanted and the performance was better. scotland created chances and, with quality in key areas, the gameplan could have worked.
The operation was a success. But the patient still died.
In these situations, the media are expected to view matters in black or white. shades of grey are rarely allowed.
But some of us also feel a level of guilt here.
strachan is a decent man doing his best. He is experienced, passionate and, as Graeme souness pointed out over the weekend, it’s hard to see who could do the job better.
He is only part of the problem and identifying who might wring another 20 per cent from the players when the campaign resumes against slovenia in March is no easy task.
But the status quo is unsustainable. Accepting mediocrity with a shrug of defeatist resignation can never be an option.
Around Europe, small nations are winning big games. Where the scots drew 1-1 with Lithuania at Hampden, slovakia stuck four past them at the weekend.
scotland players and assistant Mark McGhee all lined up after Wembley to push a common line. The group isn’t over yet. Qualification is still possible. They all stand tall behind the manager. sacking him will change nothing.
strachan, then, hasn’t lost the dressing room. But he has lost the nation.
Irrespective of what happens in talks with the sFA on Friday, it’s no longer a question of if he goes. It’s when.