IT was the waiting which did for Alex McLeish in the end. The demoralising defeats to Georgia and Italy which did for Scotland's Euro 2008 hopes were bad enough, but the prospect of having to hang around for another nine or so months before you could do anything about it was unbearable. That is why, the day after attending the draw for the 2010 World Cup draw in South Africa, McLeish arrived at the rather simple conclusion that his time was best served in club management and concluded a deal to join Birmingham City.

While he has been wary of second guessing the actions and motives of his friend Gordon Strachan ever since they were pals and team-mates coming through at Aberdeen, the backstory makes him an expert witness when it comes to the complex matrix of emotions which is swirling through the mind of the Scotland manager right now.

With his contract set to expire after tomorrow's meaningless final-day encounter with Gibraltar in Faro, and as yet no talks under way between the national team boss and the SFA, many wonder whether the 58-year-old, who has previously walked away from posts at Southampton, Celtic and Middlesbrough may also conclude he has also taken Scotland as far as he can. For his part, McLeish feels he could, and should, stay. But Strachan certainly has a lot to think about.

"It was a hard one for me because I was getting overtures from English clubs before we finished the campaign and I totally disregarded them because I really felt strongly about winning the Italy game and getting through it," recalled McLeish, of a 2008 campaign which had huge echoes with that of 2016. "Then over the next few weeks it was niggling me badly about having to wait all these months to go into another campaign. That frustration and the lure of the Premier League was obviously pretty big. I just couldn’t wait all that time to go through another campaign."

While McLeish feels his friend may have made up his mind already, one thing which will weigh on him heavily is the obligation he feels to his players and backroom staff. From the days of Walter Smith and McLeish onwards, Scotland have been locked into a pattern of short-termism in the manager's hotseat, whether it is successful head coaches moving on, or unsuccessful ones being shunted out the door. While there are no shortage of challenges ahead - while the expanded European Championship format presented reasonable odds of qualification, the same cannot be said for World Cup 2018 in Russia, where one unlucky second-place team even misses out on a play-off spot - McLeish feels some continuity in the coaching position could pay dividends. Whether there is continuity or not on the pitch is less certain, with the likes of Shaun Maloney and Darren Fletcher nudging closer to the latter stages of their careers and the quality of the next tranche of young Scottish player as yet unproven.

"If you look at success stories in national teams, the managers have often been there a long time," said McLeish. "If you look at Morten Olsen at Denmark, Jogi Loew at Germany and those previous Scotland managers [Jock Stein, Andy Roxburgh, Craig Brown] they were there a long time.

“I do think there is a good bond there, like a club spirit," he added. "There are short-term and there are longer-term aims and we shouldn’t throw that away. There will be other people who say he should go, but I think he should stay. He’s got a lot to think about, but I think Gordon would take losing to England if we could qualify for the World Cup."

The longer you look at it, the more you realise that the manager is the least of Scotland's worries. We are serial offenders when it comes to missing out on the major finals - this is our ninth unsuccessful attempt in a row since France 1998 - and there is no obvious salvation waiting in the younger age groups. As hard as things are, McLeish denied that it is Scotland's fate now to be a middle ranking nation who never qualify for a major finals.

"I don’t think we are Latvia," said McLeish. "There have been really good performances. I think Gordon has got the best out of most of the guys. Some players can do more. There are a couple emerging - the two wingers on Thursday night were a breath of fresh air. That’s a plus. But the coefficient readings are not going to look good. We’re going to have to lick our wounds – again – and it’ll be difficult for the players and for Gordon and the coaches to let it go," said McLeish. "It’s just the way football is – it takes a grip of your life."

What part luck - good, bad or otherwise - played in it is open to debate. Scotland benefited from generous deflections against both Georgia at home and Republic of Ireland away, even if their section was far more difficult than that which faced Northern Ireland, and few could have foreseen Martin O'Neill's Republic of Ireland taking four points from World Champions Germany.

"We’ll look back on this section and Gordon will do a big analysis, as he always does," added McLeish, speaking at a Bank of Scotland Midnight League Player of the Year Event which recognised young footballing talent across Scotland. "He’s very thorough and he’ll identify why we weren’t strong enough. Was it down to lack of concentration? Was it down to some guys not playing at the highest level? When you look at some of the Northern Ireland team then it shouldn’t be that. Why should be losing a goal like the injury-time equaliser on Thursday night? Why should we lose one to the best goalscorer in Europe right now after just two minutes? These are the fundamentals."

‘Tbilisi is the one we will look back on and say, ‘it was that one.’ Nobody expected us to take much from the Germans. But equally no one expected Ireland to take four off the Germans. They also took six from Georgia, so they met their obligation there as well. That will be the mantra for the next campaign. Win the obligatory games. Georgia was a banana skin and we duly slipped on it."

Easier groups or not, Scotland - with or without Strachan - are facing up to next summer on the sidelines while our Celtic cousins Wales, Northern Ireland and possibly even the Republic soak up the limelight. “I woke up to that realisation as well this morning," said McLeish. "I heard the guys from the respective countries all chirping on the radio, which makes you want to turn off. There will be national mourning and depression when those championships come about.”