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Gordon Strachan waits in wings as SFA finalises Craig Levein sacking as Scotland manager


The formalities of Craig Levein’s departure as Scotland manager will be finalised in the next couple of weeks but, before he goes, his employers want him to explain why Scotland are at the foot of their World Cup qualifying group when he was granted all his wishes in the build-up to the campaign.

The Tartan Army have made it clear they want Gordon Strachan as the next Scotland manager

By Roddy Forsyth

On the eve of the Scots’ defeat by Belgium in Brussels, Levein made a plea to be kept on and declared the problems to be long term, rooted in previous failures to implement a strategy to bring players through the international grades.

However, Stewart Regan, the Scottish Football Association chief executive, swiftly dismissed that argument on Wednesday when he said that Levein’s remit had been specifically to establish the Scots as contenders for a place in the World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014.

“The board will expect to understand why we are bottom of the group,” said Regan. “Why do we find ourselves in the position we are?

“We’ve gone into the matches with as much preparation as the manager has needed and we’ve tried to get off to a flying start and that hasn’t happened.

“We’re four games into the campaign. We’ve got to reflect on what’s gone wrong – why are we bottom of the group – and we need, as a board, to decide what happens next.

"When we’ve had the chance to sit down with him and the board we’ll make decisions on what happens next.

“We’ve got to separate two things. We’ve got the current campaign and we’ve got the plans and foundations for the future that we’ve put in place. Those were started round about two years ago.

“We brought Mark Wotte in to try to lead that. Look at some of the progress that’s been made – particularly the under-19s qualifying for the elite round (of the U-19 Euro Championship) over the last few days. We’ve got the under-17s playing extremely good football. We’re building for the future but that’s going to take a while.

“With the current ‘A’ team we’ve got a squad of players that Craig brought in to try and do a job. He spent time over the last campaign getting ready for this one and we came into this campaign with a lot more optimism.

“There was a feeling that we could actually hit the ground running and we would make an impact. We got two home fixtures in the dates meeting and we wanted to be in a better place than we are now.

“We’re not there. We need to sit down and review what happens next. Craig isn’t responsible for the performance going forward. Craig is responsible for the national team.”

Regan was in Belgium, as were three other members of the seven man board – the SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, and the two vice-Presidents, Alan McRae and Rod Petrie – and they will now consult with the three who did not travel.

They are Ralph Topping, chairman of the Scottish Premier League, Tom Johnston, president of the Scottish Junior FA, and Barrie Jackson, the Scottish FA’s first-ever independent non-executive director.

Scotland’s next competitive game is at home to Wales next March but they travel to Luxembourg for a friendly on Nov 14. How many supporters accompany them will depend on the speed of events between now and then. The Tartan Army have made plain their feelings about a manager who now has the worst record of any of Scotland’s full time incumbents.

Regan acknowledged as much when he said: “There are lots of questions about the impact of this particular start to the campaign. We’re bitterly disappointed and I’m speaking for Campbell, myself and the whole of the board when I say that the people we’re most disappointed for are the fans, particularly those who travelled on Tuesday.

“The feedback from the police in Belgium was that the fans were absolutely magnificent – 2,500 had to get through eight turnstiles because of the management of the stadium and because all of the fans came to the stadium at the last minute. I feel really sorry that we weren’t able to deliver a positive result.

“As you know, when you get to a situation in any campaign where you don’t start as well as you’d like then fans, quite rightly, get disappointed. They’ve got every right to be disappointed when we’re sat at the bottom of the group.

“It’s important to reflect on what’s happened and put a plan together. Two points out of 12 is not where any of us wanted to be. We’ve come off the back of a disappointing double header.

“We expected the game on Tuesday to be a tough match because of the quality of the Belgian team – I think everybody expected to see Belgium go to the top of the group. They’re a highflying team and they’ve got some great players.

“The match on Friday night was one that we were really hoping to win and I think that was a key match. It’s important for us now to take stock of the situation, to reflect and sit down with the manager and the Board and actually get a chance to talk about what’s gone on over the last few games and talk about the future.

“Once we’ve had a chance to do that then clearly we’ll be in a better position to decide on the next steps. Until then, we won’t be in a position to make further detailed comment.

“As far as timetable is concerned it’s really as soon as we’re able to do that. We’ve got a lot of discussions to undertake over the course of the next few days and try to plan what we want to do going forward.”

Speculation about Levein’s successor has focused principally on Gordon Strachan and Alex McLeish. One group of Scottish fans in the Stade Roi Baudouin held up a banner which read “Strachan SOS.”

The former Celtic manager is golfing in Spain and was unavailable for comment on Wednesday night, but he would seriously consider any offer of employment from Hampden Park, as would his former Aberdeen team-mate, McLeish.

However, both also know that, whatever inducements might be dangled by the SFA, a group ticket to Rio, alas, will not be amongst them.



Taken from telegraph.co.uk


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