Gordon McQueen, who played 30 times for Scotland between 1974 and 1981, said the job was “unbelievably difficult” because regardless of who is put in charge the players at his disposal are not good enough.

His views were backed up by Kevin Gallacher, another man who played in an era when Scotland regularly qualified for major tournaments. Gallacher insisted it would now be very hard to find high-calibre candidates for the job.

“It’s difficult to think of anyone that can make a difference to our predicament just now,” said McQueen. “The bottom line is we don’t have the players at this moment in time. We’ve certainly got no strength in depth.

“It doesn’t matter what qualities you have as a manager, it’s your players that count, and that’s not going to change by bringing in someone new. It might change in five, 10 years’ time, but for the time being it’s difficult to see, and it’s difficult for the young players that are coming in to play in a side that is struggling.

“It should be an attractive job to be manager of Scotland. It should be a job people are desperate to have, but I think you’ll find if you went for any of the top Scots David Moyes or Alex Ferguson wouldn’t go near it. Forget it. People like [Graeme] Souness and [Kenny] Dalglish and Joe Jordan are the same: they won’t take the Scotland job. It would be a different story if Scotland was brimming with terrific players and we had a chance of qualifying for things, but we don’t.”

“You can’t pin your hat on any other manager coming in and being a success. I think they will find that a lot of former Scotland players whose names will come up wouldn’t want the job. There’s nobody jumps out at me because these guys know that the job is unbelievably difficult.

McQueen’s thoughts were echoed by Gallacher, who asked: “Who’s going to want to take over? It’s a poisoned chalice at the moment. Graeme Souness has already distanced himself from the job and I’m sure more will follow. Craig Levein was mentioned and it will probably be him, but I wouldn’t put my money on it.”

A lack of class, he said, was responsible for Scotland’s failure to mount a proper challenge in the recent World Cup qualifying Group 9. 
“We created a lot of chances to win games in qualifying, but we didn’t take them. We don’t have guys who can take chances. There are no proven goalscorers.”