There are two people I know that really care about Craig Levein’s appointment as Scotland manager – my dad and Steve from Prost-Amerika.
Coaching Scotland today is something of a thankless task, there really is no depth or arguably true quality available for selection. After the Bertie Vogts disaster and Walter Smith walking out on the national team the Scottish FA needs some stability and a little hope, Burley was unable to really provide either.
George Burleys team messed up qualifying for South Africa right at the start by loosing the first game to Macedonia, before dropping lots of points to Holland and Norway. Two wins over Iceland are hardly something to be proud of
Additionally his relationship with the players was not what it could have been. Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Allan McGregor were banned from playing under Burley for an incident after a game against Iceland have both indicated availability for selection now Levein is in charge.
To be fair to the SFA domestic pickings were rather slim (but better than England’s choices for domestic managers recently) David Moys is not moving from Everton, Gordon Strachan committed to Middlesbrough and Walter Smith made it clear that he will be staying at Rangers. That really left Craig Levein and Graeme Souness. The very thought of Souness being involved must have given the gents in blazers flashbacks of the Bertie Vogts “experiment”.
Levein’s philosophy must be simple, win the games one at a time and qualify for Euro 2012. It’s clear that the manager will allow no interference in selection or training from the SFA, that this will be his team and if Levein wants something it had better happen.
Unfortunately with a FIFA ranking in the mid-40’s and no tournaments qualifications for 14 years now the Scotland seeding in the qualifying draw is going make it a tough draw. Should he make it hero status will be all but guaranteed, should he fail the very structure of the Scottish FA and the oft vilified “men in blazers” could go with him.