Hampden Park has lost its roar and been replaced by a deafening, eerie echo in recent weeks. Now the manager’s door has slammed firmly shut and its cold office left vacant by Mr Burley.
In the cold dwindling light of a wintry November day George Burley was finally shown the door as he met his ‘friends’ at a Lanarkshire hotel. ‘Friends’ who have kept him in a job for longer than he deserved, ‘friends’ who have maintained that Burley was right for the job: in the end his ‘friends’ could do or say no more and had to act quickly. Gordon Smith been laughing and giggling as Scotland were swept aside by an ebullient Welsh side, only to become the axe man two days later and send Burley on his way.
If they were true friends Smith would have reacted sooner. He would have held his hands up and admitted he made the wrong choice instead in a desperate attempt to cover his own failings he hung Burley out to dry and in doing so ruined his friend’s and his own reputations.
Not only should Burley be sacked but Spineless Smith must go as well.
Gordon Smith was full of self indulgence when he spoke of his ideas on BBC’s Sportsound while as a pundit but what has he done since finding himself in his overpaid position as the head of Scottish Football?
Nothing, Nada, Zilch. Scottish Football under his stewardship has gone backwards and is in one hell of a depressing state. The Old Firm are bleating and he’s done nothing to stop their constant whining. In any other nation where the supposed ‘big two’ clubs wanted out the main man would be opposing such a venture. All “Gogs” Smith has said was he’d prefer them to stay in Scottish Football. He should have been creating obstacles and making sure they were under no illusions where he stood on the matter. Mind you he wouldn’t want to upset his pals now, would he Mr Burley?
The Scottish National team has been reduced to a nation on a par with The Gabon and Latvia whilst countries such as Northern Ireland and Switzerland are way ahead of us. This is quite frankly abysmal and we need to take a good look at ourselves as a country, but ultimately, in football, the buck stops with the manager and he has paid with his job. But what of his manager above him? Smith has a lot to answer to.
Where do we go now? The main part of the next few weeks is to employ the right person, the best guy to take us forward and lead us in to the European qualifiers where again we will be ranked amongst the 3rd seeds.
In my opinion Scotland need look no further than John Collins. This is a guy with the ability and desire to succeed in management if only he could get players to buy into his philosophies. As a Hibernian supporter I am aware of his supposed failings at Easter Road, and whilst his man management may not be the greatest I put a lot of the blame on the players at the same time.
Collins as a player was skilful and hard working on the park yet quiet and unassuming off it. He never let the headlines meet him staggering home early in the morning, he never felt the need to get involved in scrapes with the law and he never found himself in the position of arguing with the public. He should be commended for his way of life, his attitude and most importantly for his application and his respect to his job – the beautiful game.
Its perhaps a sad indictment on the modern game that when he tried to impose his philosophies on a young, immature squad at Easter Road they ran to the chairman to bleat about it instead of getting their heads down and improving themselves and their attitudes in every single way.
Back to the matter in hand and the Scotland setup; Collins is the perfect man and he will have learned from his previous mistakes and I believe he will have the respect of the players. Furthermore he will not be a yes man to Gordon Smith and George Peat, which Burley most certainly was.
Collins likes to play open, expansive football and will get the best out of his players, should they buy in to his mantra, which I am sure the players will. Guys like Alan Hutton, Darren and Steven Fletcher, Scott Brown, Graham Dorrans and Lee Wallace are exceptional athletes as well as fantastic players and should be the basis of a young, up and coming Scottish side for the future.
Let’s start again, only pick players over the age of 25 if they are exceptional; let’s play the young boys who are definitely out there as seen by the youngsters strutting their stuff not only in the SPL, but in the championship and the Premiership down south, week in week out. Let’s see where it takes us.
I am sure given the chance, Collins will put the Brave back in to Scotland.
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