It’s time to deliver, the alternative is simply unthinkable
YOU can understand the concerns, without being completely overwhelmed by those terrors now galloping through the worst nightmares of Tartan Army foot-soldiers and laying waste to stores of optimism already at a low ebb.
We can recognise that Alex McLeish is presiding over a ramshackle operation losing front-line operatives at an alarming rate, with even late replacements now refusing the call-up.
Understand that Peter Grant having to reinforce the ‘don’t muck us about’ party line regarding withdrawals yesterday is, in itself, a bad sign.
Yet, for all the worries about mood, morale and basic lack of numbers, there has to be some confidence in Scotland’s ability to beat the most modest opposition. Right?
Somewhere between dread and a desperate desire to believe in ‘our boys’, the truth lies.
As they attempt to avoid supplanting even the failed 1949 ‘subversion’ plot as the most calamitous British disaster ever to take place on Albanian soil, McLeish’s men take our best wishes with them.
And our faith? Well now, that’s the killer question. One that each supporter must answer for themselves.
The prospect of Scotland not winning on Saturday night, never mind losing, should be unimaginable. That has to be the starting point for any discussion on the matter.
Guys, come on. It’s Albania. One of those teams who exist only to disprove the old fallacy about there being no easy games in international football.
Gubbed with something to spare at Hampden, fortunate beyond belief to snatch the most incredible 1-0 home win over Israel despite being on the receiving end of a 90-minute battering, Christian Panucci’s men are the very definition of cannon fodder.
Which means, of course, that some punters are going completely off their heads over the prospect of defeat. Their fears aren’t completely irrational. Just more than a little overblown.
In defence of the panic-stricken, it is hard to shake the feeling that McLeish simply isn’t the manager he was first time around.
Moreover, there is a very definite suspicion that a few senior players have reached the same conclusion.
And it looks like one or two might, just might, have decided to side-step international adventures likely to invite only disaster and disdain for those exposed to the enemy.
We all know it happens. Footballers pick up on a bad vibe around the camp, so they either cry off injured or even ‘permanently’ retire.
They do so in the full knowledge that, when a new manager comes in next month or next year, the first thing he’ll say will be along the lines of: ‘The door is closed to nobody. We’re not so rich in resources that we can just bin players because they made a decision that they felt was best for their careers at the time…’ The new boss picks the old dressing-room leaders. And we start again.
The fact that assistant Grant is all over today’s back pages issuing dire warnings to the refuseniks is not reassuring.
A manager in control of the group, one who inspires respect, doesn’t need to bark at players about something as basic as turning up. This is an unhealthy narrative.
Yet look at who remains in the squad. And you’ll understand why even the most unsentimental of bookmakers make Scotland favourites, by however slender a margin, for this one.
Israel next Tuesday at Hampden? Now that’s a different matter. A genuine challenge.
But the plan for Saturday night’s showdown in Shkoder should be obvious to anyone. McLeish especially.
Part of international management is knowing when to accept a gift dropped into your lap by club bosses. A breed not normally known for going out of their way to help national sides.
Back when we last qualified for a major tournament, kids, Scotland beat Austria in a hugely important group match at Celtic Park.
On the night, Scotland boss Craig Brown deployed Paul Lambert to mark Andreas Herzog — now Israel head coach, ironically — out of the game.
It was a tactical masterstroke. One that Brown immediately credited to Borussia Dortmund boss Ottmar Hitzfeld, who had given Lambert precisely that job against Werder Bremen playmaker Herzog when the pair had met on league duty a few weeks earlier.
Any similarity between that situation and Callum McGregor being reborn in a more deep-lying position for Celtic is intentional.
Keep it simple, then. And get the job done. Safe in the knowledge that, however badly things go, it can never be as disastrous as events in Albania nearly 70 years ago.
Back in those post-war years, the gung-ho spooks at HQ ended up doing incalculable harm to the fledgling Secret Intelligence Service, strengthened the communist regime they hoped to overthrow — and cost the lives of 300 agents and civilians.
Some still blame notorious double agent Kim Philby for the catastrophe. Not an option open to McLeish, should the worst happen.
Which it won’t. Probably. Possibly.