Scottish football is a rolling light entertainment show. The latest passing absurdity is a turn about whether or not a list of names ever existed. The SFA would have us believe that Michael O’Neill was only one of a handful of managers to be considered as the next Scotland boss. They had a list. That has been taken with a pinch of salt by those who reckon the search never extended beyond a single contender: O’Neill. So “the list” becomes a matter of debate, unverifiable and unprovable, a Hampden holy grail.
Today the SFA have no option but to insist they were promiscuous from the start, fancying more than just O’Neill, because otherwise it would be confirming that they must now make a standing start. It would seem as inept as it is currently being painted across the media. These are bleak, batten-down-the-hatches days for the ashen-faced Hampden office-bearers. Some of us will meet Stewart Regan at the Uefa Nations League draw in Switzerland today and it will be a strained encounter for the SFA’s embattled chief executive, not least with O’Neill elsewhere in the room like the school prom date who stood him up then arrived with someone else.
Surely it is inconceivable that the SFA sub-committee charged with finding Gordon Strachan’s successor — a headhunting posse consisting of Regan, Alan McRae, Rod Petrie and Ian Maxwell — didn’t knock around three or four serious contenders before agreeing that O’Neill was the preferred candidate? They couldn’t have been so detached as to merely assume O’Neill would jump at the chance of working for them, to the extent that they gave no thought to potential alternatives.
Try drawing up your own list. Does it have five appealing, qualified, available, financially realistic contenders? Thought not. Does it have two or three? Circumstances change and managers fall in and out of availability, so whatever list the SFA drew up within days of Strachan’s departure the governing body needn’t feel beholden to that. Today Steve Clarke is near the top of the bookies’ runners and riders list. It is hard to believe he would have been given more than a passing mention on any list drawn up last autumn. Strachan left on October 12. At that point Clarke had been out of frontline management for 22 months and out of work altogether since Aston Villa let him go as a coach in October 2016. Reading sacked him when he won only 19 of 53 games. For a year his phone wasn’t ringing. Football had all but turned its back on him.
Three months later he is Kilmarnock’s messiah, the manager of the moment. Land him now and the SFA would draw little criticism but a far longer body of work is needed, as Clarke himself, a pragmatist, would doubtless agree. He has been in charge for only 13 games. His coaching pedigree in the English Premier League commands respect and he would have the presence to carry a dressing room of Scotland’s senior figures. Carrying the country would be another thing. Clarke doesn’t exactly score high for the effervescence or charisma international managers need; he is serious, even dour, and can be chippy. He would be an easier fit as the talented training ground assistant to a more obvious figurehead.
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A few years ago Alex McLeish suspected he would not get another English top-flight job because clubs at that level seemed to believe he was yesterday’s man. McLeish, who turned 59 on Sunday, will know that the same perception would float around him if he got the Scotland post. His record was outstanding in his brief spell in charge a decade ago. Some supporters always will resent the fact he walked out to take over at modest Birmingham City. A fabulous former Scotland player, a successful previous manger, available, enthusiastic, affordable: McLeish ticks a lot of boxes and appointing him would draw little negativity in the media (that shouldn’t be a factor for a strong ruling body but it might be for the SFA given the kicking they have had for ditching Strachan and taking a lifetime to find someone else). But I’m not sure the McLeish of 2018 could repeat the alchemy of ten years ago.
The Scotland job is one of three big managerial positions in the country but having turned down Rangers, Derek McInnes has said he would reject any SFA advances right now. The profile and possibilities would intrigue him but in any case the SFA could not match his salary at Aberdeen.
Neil Lennon took a Scottish club into the last 16 of the Champions League, would handle the scrutiny, and would easily have the squad’s respect. He has shown himself to be a highly capable and strong at Celtic and Hibs. Against that, he is divisive and unpopular with many fans. Besides, FA vice-president Rod Petrie might feel that Hibs chairman Rod Petrie should win any tug-of-war on this one.
Slaven Bilic? Expensive. Iceland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson? Too few impressive seasons. Malky Mackay? The same. Stuart McCall? A so-so record in management.
The SFA will have to be imaginative and open-minded. They will have to embrace names which could not conceivably have been on any list drawn up back in October.
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One thing we’ll ask Regan today is this: if the SFA knew then what it knows now, would they have got rid of Strachan?
Dembélé will call the shots
Celtic are doing an awful lot of talking on Moussa Dembélé’s behalf. He’s been with them only for a season-and-a-half and he signed for four years. No-one’s kidding themselves that he’ll be around in even a year’s time but, unusually, this is a case where the club is doing more than the player to keep transfer talk bubbling.
Brendan Rodgers has twice spoken about speculation messing with Dembélé’s head and Chris Davies took it further by revealing the 21-year-old wants to leave. But you sense that the striker and his advisors will leave on their own terms. Unless a bid comes in that they like — and that wasn’t Brighton — he’s not going anywhere any time soon.
● The Craig Levein-Neil Lennon “natural order” rammy is magnificent: absolute bread and butter Scottish football soap opera.
Man says something, other guy responds, first guy has another go, second guy bites again, newspapers and broadcasters stoke it up and revel in it. Levein is second to none when it comes to a bit of wry devilment. If Hibs win the next one Lennon will land a waspish line of his own, guaranteed. Edinburgh derbies are rubbish but, boy, do they generate stories.
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Advantage Aberdeen ...
Aberdeen are on tenterhooks, walking on eggshells. The news that planners have recommended approval of the £50 million Kingsford project means it’s all on the 45 Aberdeen City councillors now.
Canvassing has suggested that Monday’s vote on a new stadium will go the Dons’ way but cooncillors can be thrawn and contrary. Remember, the FA thought it had sewn up host status for the 2018 World Cup and ended up with just two votes when they needed 12.
Chairman Stewart Milne can say only this much for now: it feels like the wind’s behind them coming up to the finishing line.