GORDON Strachan last night insisted he has no concerns over his future as Scotland manager ahead of the crucial Russia 2018 qualifier against England next week.
A large number of Scotland supporters called for Strachan to be sacked following the 1-1 draw with Lithuania at Hampden and 3-0 defeat to Slovakia in Trnava last month.
Those disappointing results left the national team languishing in third bottom spot in Group F with just four points from their opening three games.
Read more: Scotland squad backs Strachan's decision to recall Brown for crucial England encounter
The 59-year-old, who yesterday named a 25 man squad for the meeting with Gareth Southgate’s side at Wembley a week tomorrow, admitted he had considered his position after the loss to Slovakia.
However, he stressed that his only worry was getting the result down in London that resurrected the country’s hopes of making it through to the next World Cup finals.
“After a certain amount of time you always have a think about what is the best for everybody,” said Strachan. “Then you think: ‘This is not about me, absolutely not about me’.
Read more: Scotland squad backs Strachan's decision to recall Brown for crucial England encounter
“I’m 59-years-old. Do you really think I am thinking about my job or where it could go? Honestly, I’m 59! I love what I am doing, I absolutely love it. I think it’s a wonderful job and I work with wonderful people.
"I can deal with the criticism. But what I find it hard to deal with is not being able to help to take everyone - the players, the terrific backroom staff, the people who work here, the supporters and even anybody who has ever bumped into me and said good luck - to a finals.
“That’s what I’m interested in – that’s all I’m interested in. If you thought I was thinking about myself over the last couple of weeks then you don’t know me. It is too big and too great to think about yourself.
“I have had some smashing times in football and wouldn’t change it, but never do you think about yourself first, that’s for sure.”
Strachan, who has spent spells in charge of Coventry City, Southampton, Celtic and Middlesbrough previously in his managerial career, was adamant that he had been unaffected by the flak he was subjected to after the Russia 2018 double header last month.
Strachan added: “I think I would have had a real problem with it 20 years ago. I’m old enough now to deal with it now.
“The only problem we had after the Slovakia game was about how do we get this group to a World Cup finals? It wasn’t a case of: ‘Oh, Gordon people are talking about you’. I am way past that. It’s not fun, but I’m way past that.
“For anyone to think I was thinking about myself over the last few weeks is crazy. I have no fear whatsoever of not being a manager. I do have a fear of not helping people to get where they want to go.
“It is all I have wanted to do as a coach. That is troubling. You have to deal with that. But my only thought between now and the game will be getting the result that makes everybody proud of us.
"I took the last two games into consideration. You think: ‘Well, we disappointed as a group. How do we make it better?’ What a chance to make it better!”
Strachan, who failed to lead Scotland through to the Euro 2016 finals in France in the summer, is confident that he has retained the backing of his players ahead of the eagerly-anticipated showdown with England.
“I have absolutely no doubt about that,” he said. “We get on well as a group. You might find somebody who is not in the squad who might have something to say, but I have not got a problem with that.
Read more: Scotland squad backs Strachan's decision to recall Brown for crucial England encounter
“But, as I have said, it has not got anything to do with me as such. I have no fear about not working. I would miss training with people, I would miss getting on with them, but I could deal with that. The problem I would have is not being able to take everybody to where I think we can go and I have to deal with that myself if it ever happens.
“Until then, it’s not happening and we go on and play football and get as many points as we can. There can’t be anybody more proud of being the Scottish manager than me. I just think it is a fantastic, fantastic job.”
“I have absolutely no fear of the future, no fear whatsoever, none whatsoever. If anybody tried to use that as a stick to hit me with it would be just like a Ken Dodd tickling stick, it really would. There is far more than me that we should be worried about.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here