First the Charlton interest. The Scottish Mail on Sunday ran a story about live-wire attacker Andrew Halliday. The youngster has a host of English clubs chasing him for signature in January but apparently the only concrete offer so far has come from the Addicks. He has a prolific record as a youth player and has been scoring, from the wing as I understand it, in recent weeks for top-of-the-table Livingston.
Secondly then, George Burley has paid the price for managing only 3 wins in 14 matches in just under two years. The faceless suits at the SFA ditched their man today with a statement almost identical to when they said they "will find the best candidate available ahead of qualification for Euro 2012" before choosing Burley. I attended a good number of Burley's matches and never felt he got a fair crack of the whip in terms of available players. Injuries and absenteeism played their part in limiting his options and he had to contend with the nonsense of losing the likes of Barry Ferguson after being disrespectful to colleagues and supporters.
The Scotland Manager job is fast becoming a poisoned challice and if the SFA continue at this rate, they will soon start scraping the barrel in terms of who's available to take it. Giving Burley a vote of confidence in September was weak in the circumstances. He was then forced to take representative sides to Japan and Wales for money-generating friendlies. The better players with more important club matters all pulled out and Burley was left with reserves to do the job. It was no surprise that Scotland lost both games and failed to score.
If we get Halliday & he turns out to be as good as Robert Snodgrass it will be a real coup.
ReplyDeleteThere are any number of really suitable candidates for the Scotland job - Kenny, Souey, George Graham, maybe even Walter Smith as well as the younger brigade such as Craig Levein. Such is the reputation of the SFA that I suspect the experienced guys wil not be interested.
Shame, a nation that has produced so many great managers can not get one of their own to do the job. The SFA needs to take a serious look at itself.
Who would you chose Dave as Scottish manager?
ReplyDeleteJose Mourinho. Realistically, Joe Jordan is probably about the right sort.
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