NO NEED FOR A BUMPY ECKSIT
McLeish has faced up to a vote of no confidence with Scotland but now has platform for a strong and stable future
LIKE Prime Minister Theresa May, Alex McLeish has spent recent weeks watching his back. Guarding against the risk of a hard and bumpy Ecksit.
A dismal 2-1 defeat in Haifa last month left Scotland’s hopes of qualification for the Euro 2020 finals dangling by a thread, offering ammunition to the people who didn’t want him in the first place.
The reasons for that were many. EBTs and his Rangers past were one. The sudden departure from the national team for Birmingham first time around another.
The suspicion his appointment was part of a trade-off by members of the SFA board to install Ian Maxwell as chief executive didn’t help, while the governing body’s decision to turn from Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill to a former occupant of the job seemed a strange change of recruitment tack.
When McLeish won just two of his opening eight games in charge — including damaging friendly defeats to Belgium and Portugal — the negativity and indifference surrounding Scotland’s national team threatened to become overwhelming.
The need to beat Albania and Israel, then, was pressing. By winning both games, scoring seven goals in the process, McLeish not only took the national team to within two games of the Euro finals and earned promotion to Pool B of the Nations League.
He also defied the people who wished him well while suspecting his best years in management were behind him.
The margins were as thin as Allan McGregor’s right paw in the end, but a tense win over the Israelis prevented a vote of no confidence he would probably have lost.
‘Football is really fickle nowadays, isn’t it? You are judged early doors — two or three results and it is crisis,’ said McLeish.
‘We played five friendlies and have only played four competitive games. I am only getting started. I just need a bit of slack.
‘After the last game (in Israel) I didn’t feel very good for 24 hours. But as soon as I get back in the next day I am hard at it again.
‘I want to prove everybody wrong who was doubting me. That was the key and it has always been the key. Whenever you get knocked down you have to get back up.
‘I have done that loads of times in my career. If it didn’t go well on Tuesday night it would obviously be a bit of a different interview.
‘But I would still be telling you I have only just started. The qualification games are the ones that matter.’
Before kick-off on Tuesday night a rumour emanating from England suggested McLeish planned to call it quits after the game. It was inaccurate, as most footballing rumours are. Yet the sense Big Eck might not be the long-term answer to Scotland’s issues threatened to become a self-fulfilling prophecy if he failed to beat Israel.
Buoyed after a 3-2 win, he insisted: ‘I am determined. I have got a contract. I am not going to walk out after four or five games because people are shouting at me or moaning and there is a little bit of negativity on social media. That doesn’t make me want to quit.
‘I think we won them (supporters) over against Israel. We celebrated with the fans. It is something we haven’t done for a wee while. We put one foot in the door of the Euros. But we know there is still work to be done.
‘At the end of the day the only way you can get folk to support you is to win. We have won two in a row there, back-to-back.’
On January 21, McLeish turns 60. In a game where younger — cheaper — managers are all the rage, coaches over 50 are now routinely dismissed as tactical dinosaurs. McLeish prefers to look on it as experience.
After a well-intentioned attempt to accommodate Andrew Robertson and Kieran Tierney in a 3-5-2 formation, nine call-offs forced his hand for the games against Albania and Israel. James Forrest and Ryan Fraser were employed either side of a recalled Steven Fletcher with a three-man midfield of Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Stuart Armstrong behind.
The injection of pace worked in both games and, suddenly, it feels as if McLeish is on to something.
With players like Tierney, John McGinn and John Souttar yet to come back, Scotland have the makings of a young and dynamic squad when the next phase of qualifying begins in March 2020.
‘Kieran Tierney was gutted to miss out, so was John McGinn, two really good young players who have been produced in this country,’ added McLeish. ‘Can they become Scottish greats? That’s the challenge for them. They were very keen to ignore the scans and come and play for Scotland. But there is no way we can allow those risks with the clubs.’
Former Celtic winger Davie Provan used his newspaper column to appeal for McLeish to be given the time to do the job, while suggesting his best years in management might be behind him.
With a chuckle, the Scotland manager said: ‘I’m more experienced than I was when Davie thinks I had my best years.
‘I feed off that — it makes me more determined. I take inspiration from the Roy Hodgsons of this world. I’m still passionate about the team and the small details and getting everything right.
‘It’s more advice I give them now in a team-talk.
‘We spoke about discipline with the referee. UEFA like the respect thing, the respect for the ref, the game and your opponent.
‘You impart advice to guys who maybe haven’t heard that at club level. All these things you can pass on as well as tactical advice.’
The legacy he wants to leave when he does move aside is one of renewed vigour and confidence in the national team.
A slither of self-respect after qualifying for a major tournament when Hampden hosts four games and the sense Scotland’s national team can compete once more.
‘I spoke to a friend of mine and he asked: “Where has Scotland’s confidence gone?”. He didn’t just mean as a team, he meant as a nation.
‘I thought: “Aye, let’s bloody try and big ourselves up”.’
No one would argue that Albania or Israel were world beaters. But the process has to start somewhere.
Whenever you get knocked down you just have to get back up again