All the world’s a stage – but the SFA have a restricted view

It looks as though the Fat Lady is clearing her throat and readying herself to signal the end of George Burley’s reign at Southampton while the stagehand is preparing to open the curtains on his new lead role as manager of Scotland.

Apologies for the theatrical references but I am merely trying to liven up what has been an extremely dull and uninspiring recruitment process by the SFA.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not despondent by the appointment of Burley and I don’t for one minute believe he will take Scotland backwards in terms of the footballing progress we have made in recent years.

It’s just that, well, everything seems to have been a little flat about the whole thing. Burley will prove to be a safe pair of hands and he will have my full backing but it doesn’t seem as though the SFA have been willing to push the boat out and consider a couple of names that are a bit left of centre.

On the SFA’s shortlist of four candidates to have been interviewed, I believe there was only ever two men who had a realistic chance of being offered the job: Burley and Motherwell manager Mark McGhee. Both were good candidates and there would have been little complaint had McGhee got the nod just as there’s no-one from the Tartan Army readying themselves for a leap off the Forth Road Bridge with Burley’s appointment.

It’s just that, they both seem to be lacking that little something extra that would have provided a spark for the whole process. Tommy Burns and Graeme Souness were never going to get the job (although perhaps Souness was the SFA’s idea of a maverick name on the shortlist) and therefore should not have been interviewed in the first place.

Instead, the names of Burley and McGhee should have been supplemented with someone like Steve Clarke at Chelsea or Alex Miller at Liverpool – both of whom I have touted for the job in a previous post. Then, perhaps a bit of spice should have been added to the mixing pot in the form of a foreign name – no, not Berti but someone with a bit of continental experience and a sound grasp of the english language.

Then, at least we would have seen that the SFA were not operating with blinkers on throughout the process and were open to considering other avenues. At the end of the day, had they still decided that Burley was the right man for the job then so be it – at least they would had performed due diligence in the considering all the options.

All of this sounds like a fanatical anti-Burley tirade, which I can assure you it is not. He is a man of dignity, professionalism and likes his teams to play attacking football. He will be a good appointment, of that I am sure.

I just wish that the SFA hadn’t operated with the blinkers on. Or perhaps, to continue the theatrical theme, they could only afford the cheap seats with the restricted view.

Scotland shortlist fails to inspire

So Billy Davies has ruled himself out of the running for the Scotland manager’s job. Please excuse me for not reaching for the Night Nurse to catch up on any lost sleep.

Davies has proved himself to be astute at taking flagging Championship sides and challenging for promotion but no more than that. I have no doubt he is a great coach but an effective man-manager or statesmanlike figure he certainly is not. At least not yet. My good friend Alan Pattullo of the Scotsman has said it here much better than I can. Some have called this a character assassination but in my view this is a frank assessment of Davies’ career to date. Well done for telling it like it is Alan.

So, according to reports it is now down to Tommy Burns, Graeme Souness, Mark McGhee or George Burley. I have to say that none of them inspire a great deal of confidence in carrying on Walter Smith and Alex McLeish’s good work. To perform against teams like France, Italy and Holland, a coach should really have some experience of taking his side into battle against some top teams – and for me that means having managed a team in European competition or in the English Premiership.

Burley performed miracles with Hearts before he was ousted by ‘hand’s on’ owner Vladimir Romanov and he is currently doing well under difficult circumstances at Southampton. However, he has no European experience and limited time managing in the top-flight.

I also very much like the work McGhee is doing at Motherwell as he has not only got them winning but playing some great attacking football in the process. However, again he has no European experience in management and prior to Motherwell can count Bristol City, Leicester and Wolves as previous clubs.

Souness is a recipe for dressing room disharmony and, although hugely experienced at a number of top-flight clubs, it is almost inevitable that his arrogance and man-management style would disrupt the atmosphere within the squad.

I can’t help but think that Burns’ name is only in the frame because of a lack of other viable candidates and by way of apology for being overlooked when McLeish was appointed. His recent ‘managerial experience’ amounts to being No2 during Berti Vogts’ disastrous reign as Scotland boss and coaching the youth teams at Celtic Park.

I struggle to remember much about his reign as Celtic manager in the 1990’s and although I believe his teams’ were lauded for playing some decent football I think I am right in saying that it was not Celtic’s most successful period in their history.

The SFA seem determined to go down the Scottish route for their next boss and to that end I am surprised that no-one has mentioned the two most successful Scots in coaching positions in the Premiership (excluding, of course, Sir Alex Ferguson).

Steve Clarke at Chelsea and Alex Miller at Liverpool have been involved with their respective clubs through a number of highly successful campaigns. Miller has worked alongside Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez during UEFA Cup and Champions League triumphs while Clarke has gleaned considerable continental knowledge from Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri.

I particularly like the thought of Clarke as boss as there have been some extremely positive noises coming from Stamford Bridge about his involvement in Chelsea’s success. I heard a story from someone (I believe it was Andy Townsend on TalkSport although I could be mistaken) talking about a recent abject first-half showing from Chelsea.

The team apparently performed much better after half-time following a rousing team talk. The man who delivered this team talk: manager Avram Grant? No. Former Ajax manager and Grant’s esteemed assistant Henk Ten Caat? No. It was Steve Clarke.

Having so much respect in a dressing room full of multi-millionaires can surely only stand him in good stead for a top position elsewhere and I see no reason why it couldn’t be Scotland.

Of course, the SFA have had their fingers burnt after their last two managers were poached and they will be in no hurry to lose another one should they prove successful. In that sense, Clarke’s growing reputation and age would probably count against him should the blazers at the SFA decide he was worth a look.

Miller, then, would seem a reasonable name to throw into the hat. He is at an age when the ‘part-time’ nature of international management may be appealing and he may be keen to be his own man again after years of being in the shadow of successful managers. He is also less likely to be poached should he continue the upturn in fortunes for the national team.

People may point to his time at Hibs and Aberdeen where he was not considered to be an exponent of the beautiful game and was happy to win ugly. But at Hibs he duly delivered and won the League Cup in 1991, reached the final in 1993 and guided the Edinburgh-side to third place in the league in 1995.

It is important the SFA exhaust all the possibilities for appointing a Scottish manager but nobody should be appointed simply because they are Scottish and will take the job. Should none of the above candidates prove suitable then we cannot let our experience with Berti put us off the foreign route again.