The Scottish season so far: the national side

As we begin the run up to the end of 2009, Inside Left looks back on an interesting season so far in Scottish football. This season can best be summarized as 'troublesome', as our clubs struggle in European competition and our chairmen and directors struggle in the boardroom. And with financial trouble never off the radar, what is the future for Scottish football?

We begin though, with a look back at the national side's efforts this year, and look forward to a difficult, but hopefully rosy (tartan?) future.

George Burley's much maligned reign as the Scotland manager officially came to an end immediately after the embarrassing 3-0 defeat in the friendly against Wales. But his tenure was effectively over on a cold evening March as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie helped themselves to easy goals in the 3-0 win over Burley's charges. From that moment on our qualification hopes (at that stage, where already in the realms of probability theory and advanced computational mathematics) ended, and the rest of the campaign essentially becoming nothing more than an exercise in keeping up appearances. And even that we didn't manage well. Wins against Iceland and Macedonia where nice - the 4-0 trashing by Norway wasn't. Nor where the back to back defeats to Japan and the aforementioned Wales that followed immediately after the conclusion of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Burley's long-term future was never really an issue. Right from the start, this site never believed he had much of a future, so when the axe finally fell on his reign, we where happy enough to wave him off. Our disappointment was not so much for the man, but more for the long drawn-out lingering death of the concept of Scottish football as a national treasure and a source of national pride.

To be fair, Burley is just the latest in a long line of managers who 'did alright', but who did nothing to restore the pride the nation had in the 50's, 60's and 70's when, even through failure after failure, supporting Scotland, despite the results, was something to enjoy. Bertie Vogts is best forgotten and both Walter Smith and Alex McLeish steadied the ship, a ship that Burley didn't even get out of the dry-dock, let alone the harbour.

If he had got it out of the harbour, he'd only have scuttled it thanks to his inept handling of the 'Boozegate' and 'Vickygate' affairs, not to mention the very public departure of Kris Boyd. Kris Boyd may have been an immature prat, but Burley's job was to stamp his authority on the squad and bring the wayward back into line. He failed to do so spectacularly, and the interference of the SFA only showed just how little respect Burley carried in both the dressing room and the board room.

But there's no use in going over old ground. The SFA are on the hunt for a new manager to take the national side forward. Craig Levein, the Dundee United manager looks set to get the job.

But wait.

Considering George Burley had a better record as a player (a UEFA Cup and an FA Cup win with Ipswich) and a coach (he has an EPL Manager of the Year and a League Managers Association Manager of the Year award under his belt), should we be concerned that Levein has never won a league or a cup, either as player or manager (though he has picked up 6 SPL Manager of the Month awards during his spells at Hearts and Dundee United)?

The answer is possibly, but as the small print on your pension says, past performance is no guarantee of future success. Just ask Luiz Felipe Scolari, a hugely successful World Cup-winning coach who lasted less than half a season at Chelsea, or Sven Goran Erikson, whose efforts at Manchester City and Mexico overshadowed his earlier achievements with the English national side.

The choice of next manager of Scotland will be announced before the draw for the European championships next year. Whoever gets the job, be it Levein or Smith or Jefferies or the man on the moon, there's a long, hard road ahead. The new manager will have to make do with what we have now, and he has to find and nurture the talented players of the future.

And Scottish national football has a future. There are plenty of talented youngsters coming through the ranks as the current Scotland Under-21 and Under-19's have shown. The trick is bringing them through at the right time, having in place the infrastructure to support them and having the right manager in place to get the most of them when they pull on the Scotland shirt.

Apropos that last point, there are plenty of good young Scottish managers around who would do the nation proud. Owen Coyle is exceeding expectations in England. Craig Levein, Gus McPherson, Billie Reid and Derek McInnes at Dundee United, St Mirren, Hamilton Accies and St Johnstone are all examples of managers who have worked wonders - relatively speaking - on small budgets and small clubs with average infrastructures, but who know how to get the best out of their players and their clubs.

Now, I know that none of those - Levein aside - are inspirational choices, but needs be as needs must. The thing is that we need a Scottish manager who is familiar with not just the game, but the whole circus that surrounds it.

Modern football is not just about the 90 minutes on the park anymore. What started out as a simple game has become massively complex, requiring the kind of all-round skills that are hard to find outside of big business.

Football has become an interwoven affair that the likes of Stein and McLeod and Ormond never had to deal with. There are sponsors to deal with, TV networks and clubs to appease, a critical media and an over-expecting support tired of under-achieving sides, not to mention the often fragile psychology of players and their overpaid ego's and agents.

The new manager must work closely with the SFA and the Scottish Parliament to make the short and long-term changes the Scottish game so desperately needs, namely: investment in youth football, investment in facilities, educating the coaches (and getting rid of the Saturday-morning coaches, some of whom have done untold damage to the grass-roots game), improving the scouting system (so that players like James McCarthy do not end up playing for Ireland) and in the year of the the "Active Nation Scottish Cup", educating the players of today and of the future in terms of their lifestyle and their diet.

In a year when all Scotland fans can hope for is avoiding the likes of Wales, Macedonia and Iceland in the draw for the qualifying rounds for the European Championship in 2012, and that England don't win the World Cup next year, this site thinks Craig Levein would be a good choice as Scotland manager. He'd bring the sort of no-nonsense approach that the game needs to get it back to something approaching credibility.

United's loss could be Scotland's gain.