Stewart Regan looks pretty damaged as the Scottish FA chief executive. The past few days have done further harm to his reputation as Regan and his organisation try to explain how this absurd impasse of spending months chasing Michael O’Neill ended with everyone red-faced and empty-handed.
No-one is disputing these matters are complex and time-consuming. Regan had a subtle game to play, and a cunning one, and he required a certain stealth to make sure he stayed within football’s rules in his dogged pursuit of the Northern Ireland manager for Scotland.
But he made a botch of it. Regan thought that time was on his side and that O’Neill would be persuaded. In both contexts he called it wrong. Even worse — and this must surely be a fundamental rule of negotiating never to be broken — he ended up trying to entice a manager by offering less money than he would earn in his current job.
By any measure, it ended up being quite the cock-up by Regan. It is little wonder the tabloids, rarely slow to excitability, have had a field day.
“I take full responsibility for what has happened,” Regan said in Lausanne the other day. By these words we must glean that he knows himself he fouled up. Those of us who know and like the SFA boss — I count myself among them — could not soft-soap or shoe-shuffle around these incompetent events. Regan has made the SFA look amateurish in its actions.
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Apart from misjudging O’Neill’s mood, he appeared to allow himself to be hamstrung by the financial aspects. Did Regan simply want to save the SFA hard cash by taking a minor eternity to agree to pay the Irish FA the potential compensation for O’Neill — put at £500,000 — before finally sitting down to speak with him?
I’ve no doubt Regan could cite various factors which he would hope might mitigate his own failings in this saga. It is also true that, had O’Neill said “yes” to the SFA this week, then we wouldn’t be having this debate.
But here is one simple question: do you believe another figure in Regan’s shoes could have pursued O’Neill more swiftly and clinically? It is very hard to answer “no” to that. It is now 108 days since Gordon Strachan was sacked and, even after this yawning gap, the only thing we know for certain is that Regan and Scotland will not get the manager they wanted.
It has been a bad week for the SFA’s top beak. He said it himself: “I am responsible for the Scottish FA’s policies and key decisions.” So, on top of this O’Neill farce, we got news that Regan and his team were sending Scotland off to South America at the end of May to play two friendly matches against Peru and Mexico.
For the love of money, which international Scotland player will want to go on this trip? The players will be absolutely knackered. Playing games at home at this time can just about be accepted, but flying everyone off to South America?
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It looks a baffling decision by Regan and co, notwithstanding there will doubtless be commercial appeal in it all.
I do have one note of sympathy for Regan. He was reputedly said to be pushing the boat out for Michael O’Neill to the tune of a £10,000 per week salary. When I think of what Scotland managers have to do — loafing around Hampden waiting for nine games a year or, in Gordon Strachan’s case, hanging around at home in England — it really does make you balk.
Yes, it is about the market rate, and about negotiation, and Regan could not deliver. His methods in pursuing and then trying to understand O’Neill look unimpressive. But £10,000 a week for a Scotland manager? It is laughable money for what is essentially a part-time job. It is back to the drawing board for Regan.
I really hope he has better weeks.
Graceful, stylish Federer defies age
Early tomorrow morning, if you wake in time, you will be able to watch Roger Federer trying to win a sixth Australian Open title — and a 20th Grand Slam — when he faces Marin Cilic in the men’s singles final in Melbourne.
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Federer, now 36, has climbed back to being the world No 2 after chronic injuries in 2016. At 36, you are not supposed to be competing in Grand Slam finals in tennis but Federer defies his age, having already won the Australian and Wimbledon in 2017.
He is the oldest player to win a Grand Slam singles title in 45 years. Not for a first time I doff my cap to this special man. Modern tennis requires bull-like strength and stamina, but Federer still has a grace and style that Rod Laver in his pomp would have been proud of.
Wilson’s travels yield little
I remember it very well in October 2009. It was a cold, bleak night at Dens Park in Dundee as Rangers saw off their hosts 3-1. In defence that night for Walter Smith’s team was Danny Wilson, then the new young star among Scotland defenders, whom Rangers prized among all others.
After just 14 games for Rangers Wilson went to Liverpool, where he made a smattering of inconsequential appearances, plus one start in the League Cup against Northampton Town. Then he went to Hearts, where he played for a season in the Scottish second tier, before going back to Rangers in 2015. Wilson’s career has been stop-start ever since.
Now, it seems, in the very prime of his footballing life, he is heading to Colorado Rapids. I am not one to disparage Major League Soccer but this is not the career flight path we all had for Wilson all those years ago.
There is something to be said for young Scottish talent staying put, getting 100 matches under your belt, and then chasing the money. Even Harry Souttar might agree.
Armfield’s warmth was real
Back in 2000 I was making my way back from the European Championships in Belgium and Holland when, at Gatwick Airport, I entered a telephone booth to put in a call to Jimmy Armfield.
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England around that time had been looking for a new manager, and it had been whispered to me that they had approached Sir Alex Ferguson, who had said no. It was an intriguing tale at the time and Armfield was the man, so I was told, who knew the whole story.
I duly phoned him, this Scottish hack he would never have heard of. Armfield was gracious and polite to me on the phone and, rather in the tones of a kindly old geography teacher, put me right on certain details of my story but confirmed that, yes, the FA had approached Ferguson and that he had turned them down.
I thought of this incident this week upon hearing of the passing of Jimmy Armfield. On BBC’s 5 Live he had this warm and impressive style, and I can personally vouch for it, even when he spoke with total strangers.