AND so, it looks like it will be my old boss at Rangers, Alex McLeish, who will be the new Scotland manager. But before I get on to the merits of the appointment, I can’t let the way the Scottish Football Association have handled the search, recruitment process and appointment of the new national team head coach pass without comment. It has been nothing short of shambolic in my view.
After being rejected by first choice Michael O’Neill, and chief executive Stewart Regan falling on his sword for his part in that fiasco, they have courted and been publicly rebuffed by the likes of Walter Smith. Now, they have landed on Alex, and he has made it known he is desperate to lead his country for a second time.
Read more: Matthew Lindsay: Alex McLeish is a returning king with very little fanfare
And of course, none of this is his fault. From the SFA’s point of view, it is them who have ended up looking desperate, and they should be happy at least that a manager of such experience was still prepared to take on the position despite knowing that he wasn’t the first, second, or possibly even third choice originally.
If I’m being honest, Alex wouldn’t have been in my top three candidates for the role either, but that has nothing to do with my experience of working under him. He brought me to Ibrox, and for that, I will forever be grateful. We had a great side and enjoyed some really successful times at Rangers under his leadership, so I wouldn’t say a bad word about him as a coach.
I just felt that it was time for the SFA to look in another direction and bring a fresh perspective to the national team. Instead, this feels like a step backwards, no matter how successful Alex was as coach of the national side first time around. There is a feeling that it was almost pointless getting rid of Gordon Strachan if they were going to appoint one of his peers from the ‘old school’ of Scottish football.
At the end of the day though, this is where we are, and I hope that the Tartan Army and the country as a whole get behind Alex, because we all need to be pulling in the same direction if we want to achieve anything as a country. There’s no point in whining about how Michael O’Neill or Steve Clarke or whoever else would have been a better choice. Alex will be the Scotland manager and he deserves the benefit of the doubt from the supporters.
And, in many ways, the skillset that Alex has may well be ideal for the role. I won’t pretend that I have been touting him for the position, but the more I think about it, the more positives I can see. First of all, I always found him to be a first-class communicator. In a job where it is imperative that a coach can get his ideas across in a short space of time, that will be a massive advantage for him.
And the players will love him. Perhaps his biggest strength was his man-management. He always treats his players like adults, and with due respect. For example, if he was dropping a player for a game, he would always take him aside and explain the reasons behind it and what his thinking was. There are plenty of managers who wouldn’t bother with that, and that earned him the respect of the squad.
And it could be argued that at 59, and at the stage he is at in his career, it is the ideal time for him to take charge. He is older and wiser than he was 10 years ago, and is less likely to be tempted away by another offer elsewhere should things go well again. In that way, it feels more like it could be a longer term project than appointing the likes of Walter Smith, who would likely have been a place-holder at best for a couple of years given his age. The reason he has probably got the nod in the end is because he is a known quantity. With so much turmoil at the SFA at present, they were never likely to take a risk on a younger coach or a foreign appointment, as much as I myself and many others would probably have preferred them to.
Read more: Matthew Lindsay: Alex McLeish is a returning king with very little fanfare
With a new chief executive still to come in, they will even be able to lean on Alex to get the lay of the land when they come in.
Above all else, Alex is a really good guy, so I really do hope that it goes well for him. If it does, the country benefits, but for the SFA, it will be more about luck than judgment.
ONE MORE THING
While Scotland are unveiling one manager, St Mirren are keeping hold of another.
The news Jack Ross is staying on in Paisley despite advances from Barnsley is huge for me and every other St Mirren supporter. He has the chance to write his name into the club's history books, and that's something money elsewhere just can't offer.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel