ALEX McLEISH will be feeling the pressure at Aston Villa, but there are still plenty of other managers in a worse position than he is, insists Kevin Gallacher, the former Scotland striker.
The former Motherwell and Rangers manager's uneasy relationship with the Villa supporters reached a new nadir on Tuesday night when they tumbled to a 2-1 home defeat against Owen Coyle's Bolton Wanderers, a result which left them just three points clear of the drop zone in the Barclays Premier League. McLeish is now staring at the ignominy of having taken both Birmingham clubs down in successive seasons. The only thing in his favour is the fact that Blackurn Rovers, Bolton, Wigan Athletic and Queens Park Rangers are still below him in the table with most teams only having three matches to play.
"He is in a better position than three or four other managers but he is under a bit of pressure now," said Gallacher. "But if you go into that job, you know you are going to be under pressure.
"It was always going to be very, very difficult for him. It opened a lot of people's eyes when he moved from one Midlands club to another and you saw the depth of passion people threw at him. At the start of the season he was proving them wrong, then things changed."
Gallacher, in Scotland in an ambassadorial capacity for the London 2012 football competition, is a big admirer of Wolves' Steven Fletcher. He feels the striker has proved to Craig Levein that he deserves a place in the Scotland squad and hopes that the impasse between player and the national team manager can be worked out. "Unfortunately Steven decided to walk away as he believed he was the best player in that position," said Gallacher. "Well, he's proved his point with his performances. I think the manager and Steven have to sit down and speak about it."
His visit north coincided with a time when Rangers players appearing for Team GB is suddenly less controversial than playing for Scotland. The Ibrox club's fans have called on their players to boycott international matches in protest at the Scottish Football Association's decision to impose a transfer embargo, and Gallacher concedes that their players may be placed in a difficult position.
"In my era, when players pulled out, it was due to a genuine reason," he said. "But there are so many games now and the finances at club level rules the roost. I don't think international level should be devalued but Rangers' players have a very difficult decision to make."
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