THE quite unexpected revival of Scotland’s bid to reach the Russia 2018 finals this year has led to impassioned pleas from some quarters of late for Gordon Strachan to be retained as manager regardless of whether qualification is secured or not.
The wins over Slovenia at home and Lithuania away have certainly been impressive while the draw with England was, despite the injury-time goal that was conceded just when it appeared as if a famous victory had been recorded, a respectable result.
To go from second bottom of Group F and the depths of despair with just four points from four games to just one point off second place with two matches remaining and have a realistic chance of securing a play-off place has been nothing short of remarkable.
It is little wonder really that there has been a sudden outpouring of goodwill and support towards the man responsible.
Yet, as the past six days have once again highlighted, not that anybody really needed to be reminded just how ridiculously fickle a profession football management can be, fortunes can change very quickly.
Jim McIntyre was named Scottish Football Writers’ Association Manager of the Year last summer as a result of leading Ross County to the first major honour in their 87 year history, the League Cup. On Tuesday he was sacked after just seven Ladbrokes Premiership matches.
The William Hill Scottish Cup final and consecutive Premiership play-off places which Peter Houston took Falkirk to during his three seasons at the helm there, meanwhile, also counted for little after their disappointing start to the Championship. His services were dispensed with last weekend.
Should the national team only get a draw against Slovakia at Hampden on Thursday evening – a result which would render their hopes of coming runners-up in their section redundant - or slip up against Slovenia in the Stozice Stadium in Ljubljana three days later it would inevitably increase the pressure on Strachan and lead to calls for him to be replaced.
The 60-year-old has been non-committal about his future in recent weeks. He could clinch a place in the Russia 2018 finals via the play-off and decide to stand down. He could come up short and choose to stay on for a crack at Euro 2020. Realistically, though, another failure would bring an end to his time in charge of his country.
Seasoned followers of Scotland, those who have long memories, those who can recall what a wretched experience watching the national team invariably was before he took over nearly five years ago now, would immediately be struck by a horrible sense of foreboding if that happened.
The appointments of Berti Vogts, George Burley and Craig Levein were all widely, if not universally, welcomed by Scotland supporters and all three men endured catastrophic tenures which were blighted by failures and fall-outs. Strachan is a safe pair of hands.
He is certainly far from perfect and has made mistakes both in a Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in which his side failed to even finish third and during this current attempt to reach Russia 2018.
Refusing to bow to public opinion earlier and pick Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths up front proved damaging. Would his side have slumped to that costly 1-1 draw with Lithuania at Hampden a year ago if he had been in the starting line-up? Many think not.
Certainly, Griffiths’s play in the final third in the last three games has been exceptional. He has scored three and set up three of the national team’s last seven goals. He should have been leading the line far earlier.
A chat with one venerable former Scotland player, who has been as heartened by the last four performances and results as any Tam O’Shanter-wearing, Do-Re-Mi-singing Tartan Army footsoldier, this week put the resurgence in a bit of perspective. “Who have we played?” he asked.
It may seem a tad harsh. But that, as we have once again seen this week, is the reality of the world Gordon Strachan occupies. To hold onto his position his team must step up to another level by beating a useful Slovakia side at home and then a decent Slovenia team away.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here