Butcher and Pressley weigh up Burley offers

The new Scotland manager also knows Pressley well from their time together at Hearts. The defender, who was Burley's captain at Tynecastle, joined Celtic last January after growing disillusioned with the input from owner Vladimir Romanov after Burley's abrupt exit the previous October.

Pressley has yet to hold a coaching role, however, and his inclusion in the Scotland backroom team would be a bold move by Burley.

Butcher, who parted company as manager of Brentford before Christmas, arrived at the national stadium yesterday morning to hear what Burley and the SFA had to offer.

"There are a lot of things to talk about. We will see," he said. "I'm quite open about things. I played at Ipswich in the same side as George and have kept in touch with him and it is great for him to ask me about the post with Scotland. It is a part-time role, which would enable me to other stuff as well. I have done everything in my career, but this would be new and different, being involved on the coaching side at international level. Let's have a look at things."

Burley has succeeded Alex McLeish, and Butcher – who left Hampden in the early evening after several hours of talks – admitted with a wry smile that he has been on the receiving end of the Scotland managers past and present as a player.

He said: "George Burley broke my cheekbone in 1978 and Alex McLeish broke my leg in 1987! I've had a few scars from facing them in my career!"

Pressley a natural leader of men

THE emergence of Steven Pressley as a possible member of George Burley's coaching triumvirate says much about the impact the centre-half made on the Scotland manager during the short period of time when both men were employed by Hearts.

While Burley has already gone on record as saying he was fortunate to work with some fine captains during a managerial career which also included spells with Ipswich Town, Derby County and Southampton, none, however, impressed him more than Pressley during those astonishing four months in 2005 when Hearts bolted to the top of the SPL.

The kind of enthusiast who has a shrivelling effect on slackers, Pressley is a leader of men on the pitch who has convinced Burley he can also inspire from the sidelines.

If his consideration for involvement as a coach with the national team seems a touch premature at a time when the curtain has yet to fall on his own playing days, it only goes to show how valuable the defender's combination of integrity and zeal is viewed by his contemporaries.

It was a little remarked aspect of Pressley's ejection from Tynecastle that his fall-out with owner Vladimir Romanov came at a personal cost.

After eight years wearing a maroon jersey, there was clearly an emotional price to pay for parting with a club which came to mean a great deal to him.

If anything, what was even more impressive about Pressley's role in the revolt instigated by the 'Riccarton Three' was that he never gave any thought to the financial cost attached to taking a stand on what he believed to be right.

While Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley still had lucrative moves to make in their careers, Pressley gave up the windfall of a testimonial year which would surely have come his way if only he'd kept his mouth shut.

That wasn't Pressley's way, however. He lives his life the way he plays the game with his head held high. Even after he was thoughtlessly jeered at Tynecastle after returning to the ground as a Celtic player, the defender didn't waver. "It does not change the way I feel about the club," he said. "I had eight terrific years there. It will always remain a terrific club in my eyes."

At 34, Pressley already has an 'A' coaching licence and there can be little doubt his future lies in management. With his contract at Celtic Park due to expire in the summer, it seems likely the centre-half will seek a fresh challenge, either as a player or a player-coach.

With time's winged chariot at his back – he hasn't played as full a role as he might have wished for at Celtic this season because of a back injury – Pressley may need to move on if he wants to start more games.

As for the part-time role with Scotland, Pressley's contribution, should agreement be reached, might be regarded in a similar light to the part played by Ally McCoist under Walter Smith's reign.

As a contemporary of the players, who won many of his 32 caps for his country in their company, Pressley can provide a bridge between the squad and the management team of Burley and Terry Butcher. A huge admirer of Pressley's football intelligence and passion for the game, Gordon Strachan has said Celtic's training sessions improved just from having the defender around.

Pressley has the knack of motivating those around him and won't accept second best from anyone.

In the short space of time available to international coaches to work with players, Pressley should ensure there are no idlers on the training ground.

A proud Scot who took great satisfaction in becoming an internationalist at a relatively late stage of his career, Pressley viewed playing for his country as a privilege.

Apart from instilling enthusiasm among the squad, Pressley can be relied upon as a motivator. But he is also shrewd enough – as well as enough of a realist – not to ask people to deliver something they haven't got.

As Brian Clough once chirped: "If we lived our lives on the basis that you can't get blood out of a stone, then we'd all be a hell of a sight better off."

Speaking at the end of last year, when he was asked about the dif
ference between today's generation of young Scottish footballer and his own peers during the difficult times he spent with Rangers and Coventry, Pressley struck an optimistic note.

"When I was coming through, in the early 1990s, there was an attitude among Scottish players that hindered our progression," he recalled. "There was an inferiority complex.

"However, Scott Brown doesn't have that. Neither does Stephen McManus. They believe that they are good players – and they are.

"The mental side of football is such an important aspect."

While it would be foolish to exaggerate the importance of support personnel among the coaching staff when Scotland's prospects in the next World Cup will be largely defined by Burley's leadership, both Pressley and Butcher are genuine football men who know how to play a good hand.

Scotland will be no place for bluffers under their watch.

Taken from the Scotsman