McLeish: Short-term satisfaction could compromise long-term goals

Friday 19 October 2012

HENRY McLEISH, the former first minister and author of a wide-ranging report into the state of the game, believes sacking Craig Levein will not remedy Scottish football's deep-rooted woes.

Henry McLeish believes there is a role for Craig Levein

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Levein's future as national team manager is to be discussed by the Scottish Football Association hierarchy once he returns from holiday next week but McLeish is of the opinion that simply replacing one manager with another will not provide a satisfactory solution. He pleaded for Levein to be given more time to turn things around.

"My concern is that if something bad happens, we need a scalp," said McLeish yesterday as he helped launch Supporters Direct Scotland's "Fans Parliament" at Holyrood. "But a scalp would do nothing to change the nature of the national team at the present time, or the vision I have for Scottish football. We need to continue to invest in the reforms that we've started, and we need patience. I'm as passionate as anybody, but it might take five, 10 or 15 years. I have a great admiration for Craig. He's doing a lot of stuff off camera, in terms of the young people and elite development. "We love trying to get a short-term decision because it makes us feel better, but what is it going to do for Scottish football? It could be marginal or non-existent. So my appeal is to think beyond the man who runs the team, and the players. Put it like this: Craig inherited the pool. He made some changes. But you know that pool in five, 10, 15 years' time is going to be different."That view was echoed by Steven Pressley. The Falkirk manager and former Scotland internationalist believes sacking the manager would do nothing but appease the fury of the fans. "Our clubs go out of Europe at the qualifying rounds, we have not qualified for an under-21 tournament in almost 18 years and we have not reached a major tournament since 1998. Yet the core of the problem is Craig Levein? Give me a break," he said. "Our answer to everything is always 'sack the manager', and I guarantee, if we do that, we will be sitting here in four years' time having the same discussion. The SFA need to show strength, leadership and real commitment to what they want to achieve."To do that, McLeish feels that Scotland should look to the success stories from other similarly-sized nations for inspiration. "Nobody likes to admit it but we're not good enough," he said. "Rock bottom is a good headline but it's another spur to bigger changes and for people to embrace the bigger picture. "What would be tragic was if we started to walk around with our heads on the floor. Look at Croatia, Uruguay, with three million people, Denmark, who in 1992 won the European Championship, Ireland qualified for the finals in the summer – so we have to accept we're not good enough. And if you accept that basic premise then it shouldn't lead us to be depressed and go away and shut ourselves in a cupboard. It should be for us to say, 'there has to be a way forward'."McLeish believes there should be a role for Levein at the SFA when his time as national coach does end. "There's no way Craig should be lost to the game because he's doing a lot of great work to take this long-term perspective forward."

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McLeish: Short-term satisfaction could compromise long-term goals

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