Tempted but I was never offered the job

WALTER SMITH says Scotland was the only job which could have tempted him out of retirement. He featured high on a list of potential replacements for Gordon Strachan after Michael O’Neill turned the job down. Smith, 70, received calls from SFA performance director Malky Mackay and president Alan McRae asking if he would consider a second spell in charge. Irked by the time it took the governing body to follow up their overtures, however, he has no regrets over his decision to pull the plug on the idea. ‘No, I am finished, done,’ said Smith. ‘That (Scotland) was the only one I would have considered.’ Playing down suggestions it was his for the taking, he added: ‘First and foremost, I would like to clarify that I really wasn’t asked to take the job. ‘I was asked if I would come out of retirement but in the end I decided not to bother. ‘That meant Alex (McLeish) got the job and he maybe should have had the job in the first place because he has the credentials from his run in charge the last time.’ Smith will harbour no thoughts of what might have been ahead of Scotland’s double-header with Costa Rica and Hungary. He added: ‘I was not looking for a job. I was asked if it was a job I would consider doing. But I never got to the stage where I sat down and talked to them any further on that. ‘After two or three days of media coverage, to be quite honest, I was ticked off. ‘But it was something where somebody asks you — and if you’ve done the job before there are bits of it you miss. ‘So when somebody asks if you would consider coming out of retirement, you think about it.’ Smith will be back in the Ibrox technical area alongside Ally McCoist for a star-studded Rangers legends match on Saturday to raise funds for the Rangers Charity Foundation and the Rangers Youth Development Company. He added: ‘I’m coming out of retirement for the legends game on Saturday.’