GORDON Strachan has less friends - and more people willing to form the lynch mob - with each passing Euro 2016 match. This is hardly the surprise of the summer: if there is one thing the Scottish public is good at, it is lashing out at folk after the fact.
People were always going to look on, disgruntled, at the exploits of Wales, Republic of Ireland and particularly Northern Ireland in France and think we should be there too. Or what about plucky little Iceland, a country with only around 50,000 eligible male players between the ages of 20 and 40 to choose from. Our guys largely compare with theirs, right? So it must be Strachan's fault. Why exactly is he still hanging around?
And, to be fair to the sceptics, he and his paymasters don't always help themselves. Strachan admitted that the friendlies against Italy and France at the end of this season were an unmitigated disaster and it is hard to see how anyone ever expected anything different.
A team which appeared to be losing momentum as the end of the Euro 2016 campaign neared now feels worryingly like it is back to square one ahead of what is sure to be a gruelling World Cup bid, where England are short price favourites to scoop the one guaranteed qualification spot, and Slovakia head a list of sides who will fancy themselves to be best of the rest. Alan McRae, the SFA President, was getting way ahead of himself when he blithely seemed to guarantee that Strachan would also be in charge for the campaign for Euro 2020.
In fact, Strachan's coaching team has already started to break up, with the departure of coach Stuart McCall to Bradford City, and for once there may even be other decent options around to replace the man at the top. Somewhat mystifyingly, there have been no takers for David Moyes this summer, while seasoned coaches like Alex McLeish and Walter Smith hover around unused in the background.
Or why not a foreign coach? In Scottish football it seems we are always fated to repeat the mistakes of the past and this summer it has been as though Berti Vogts never happened. Surely Lars Lagerback, the Iceland coach, could have led us to glory instead?
Frankly, I doubt it. Scotland weren't unlucky in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 - our failures occur too consistently for that - but we did land a tough group and our players did show improvement, at least for a while. The performance which no-one can talk their way out of was the 1-0 defeat to Georgia. As much credit as Poland and the Republic of Ireland deserve for taking the scalp of Germany, victory rather than defeat in Tbilisi and Scotland would have earned a play-off place. How we managed to get through an entire match which we needed to win without a single shot on target has to go down as an epic fail.
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How much of the blame for that lies at the manager's door, and how much is simply players not being able to get the job done, is the nub of the issue. Because quite frankly, in terms of eligible players out there, I am not sure there are too many other options. The Scottish top flight may be a re-energised place this season with the Old Firm game back in town, but as much as Northern Ireland's exploits have been hailed as a triumph for Scottish Premier League players, in truth the opposite is the case. Guys like Michael McGovern, Josh Magennis and Niall McGinn are the exceptions who prove the rule.
Of the Wales team that started in the 3-0 win against Russia, only two men weren't current Barclays Premier League players. One was Chris Gunter of Reading, previously a £4m signing for Tottenham, and the other was Gareth Bale. The Republic of Ireland, who we took four points off in qualifying, had seven English top-flight players in their team as they went down to Belgium. Little Northern Ireland had four in the starting line-up which put Ukraine to the sword - including three of their back four. This is precisely the same number as Scotland started in a friendly against Italy recently.
That Scotland under Strachan are reaching a crossroads is beyond doubt, a factor the manager tacitly recognised when blooding the likes of Kieran Tierney, Steven Kingsley, John McGinn and Barrie McKay. Perhaps Jordan Rhodes will help him out by getting a run in the Middlesbrough first team or Leigh Griffiths will start banging them for Celtic in the Champions League. He could do with seven (or ideally nine) points on the board from our meetings with Malta, Lithuania and Slovakia if Scotland are to make a serious run for qualification. He could also do with all the help he can get, such things as the SPFL not scheduling the season's first Old Firm match for days after our campaign opener in Malta.
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The question which should be asked of Gordon Strachan right now is whether he still feels energised, positive and up for the challenge. Assuming the answer is still yes then let's stop all the sniping and see where it takes us.
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