LAST CHANCE SALOON
There’s no margin for error as Regan and Strachan cling on to their jobs
NO WIGGLE room, no safety net. A margin of error so slender as to be invisible to the human eye. If you think there was something odd about the united front presented by the SFA board and Gordon Strachan last night, you’ve overlooked the one thing they now have in common.
In the exasperated view of a public pushed to the brink of despair by the ineptitude of our national team, both the Scotland manager and his most vociferous supporters have exhausted their supply of second chances.
What happens next will dictate the fate of not only a manager caught in the tailspin of another failing campaign, but the holders of high office persuaded to ‘unanimously’ back him in such unequivocal terms.
If Strachan has painted himself into a corner with a series of poor results, his employers have just reversed to the edge of a high precipice, all the while laying landmines in their wake. You’re going to be amazed by how they get out of this one.
Let’s start by agreeing on one thing. However honest and fair the SFA have been in deciding, after due consideration, not to spend £800,000 in severance money on inviting Strachan to stand down, it’s okay to remain convinced that they’ve got this one wrong.
A record of three competitive wins in the past two years — Gibraltar (twice) and Malta the hapless victims — says everything about Scotland’s direction of travel. And that’s before you consider the recent slump that has seen them lose six goals and score none in their past two games.
The statement released last night talks about four home games in 2017 as some kind of panacea for all ills, while dangling the prospect of a ‘play-off place’ in front of fans who know that Scotland have already dropped too many points to make finishing among the best group runners-up anything but a long shot. Not everyone will be won over, certainly.
But let’s put to one side any argument about whether the verdict reached yesterday makes even a lick of sense. Focus instead on the new reality presented by this non-decision.
Strachan, being the sort of guy who takes great pleasure in drawing distinctions between ‘football people’ and those who — because they’ve never played professionally — can’t possibly understand the game, will hardly have needed his personal situation laid out in detail.
Whatever leeway he has won himself through persuasion, and force of conviction, won’t be worth anything should Scotland fail to improve on their underwhelming efforts to reach the World Cup Finals in Russia.
As for the men who have invested so much of their own professional reputation in Strachan turning things around? That’s where it gets really interesting.
It should be impossible to imagine some of the key office bearers, most particularly chief executive Stewart Regan, president Alan McRae and vice-president Rod Petrie, claiming any kind of mandate to remain on the premises if ‘their man’ continues to prove so uninspiring in his leadership of the national team.
Yet they have one chance to avoid being judged on this alone, one opportunity to do something great that isn’t linked to Strachan’s whims. By successfully filling a vacancy crucial to the future welfare of the entire game in Scotland.
Put bluntly, the SFA must get the appointment of the next performance director absolutely spot on. No ifs, no buts, no maybes about the credentials and capability of the new man. Or woman.
All things considered, this next signing better be a beauty. Someone capable of inspiring the coaching community, lifting the mood, implementing a workable plan to improve the game and winning hearts and minds. Even if that means grabbing a few of the more obstructive elements by their vested interests.
The failed experiment involving Brian McClair, whose arrival and departure spanned 13 months of little forward motion, has left Scotland without leadership in this vital area since July.
London head-hunters have been appointed to compile a list of candidates. So far, names mentioned include Malky Mackay, John Collins and current Northern Ireland assistant manager Austin MacPhee. It took them four months to come up with that.
With another four months until Scotland play again, a long winter in which fans may discontentedly look upon a Group F table showing our team second bottom behind England, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania, a genuinely exciting arrival during the international ‘winter break’ would certainly give the game a little lift.
That our national team is at a low ebb can hardly be disputed. Can you remember the last time a winning manager needed a vote of confidence? Last night’s statement bore all the hallmarks of a board trying to construct support out of very little material, announcing rather triumphantly that ‘the decision has been taken to continue to support Gordon Strachan and his staff.’
It’s worth noting that Regan was the man quoted in the official missive put out by the SFA.
That’s why the chief executive gets the big bucks, for sticking his neck out while the volunteer committee men — among them McRae, who famously said he thought Strachan should be retained even beyond the current campaign, regardless — retreat into the shadows.
Regan’s assertion that Strachan ‘is adamant… that we can recover the position and believes a play-off place still to be attainable’ contains no surprising insight into the collective thinking, while explaining that the board are convinced of the manager’s ‘hunger for this challenge’ only adds to the impression that the whole process has turned on one man’s interest in carrying on.
For his part, Strachan is quoted as expressing a belief that his team can ‘maximise our chances of a play-off place.’ Doesn’t sound like him, does it?
Well, interpret this. Either Scotland win at least three of those four home games — Slovenia, England, Malta and Slovakia — and take something from Lithuania and Slovenia away, or we won’t be in the play-offs. And Gordon will be off, only without a pay-off.
Buckle up, then, for one last shot at … well, let’s not call it glory, shall we? Salvation, maybe. For more than just the manager.
Regan put his name on the statement as committee members hid