ACCORDING to large sections of the media, George Burley was the rank outsider of the final four candidates to become Scotland manager. Mark McGhee was the favourite, and something approaching the obvious choice over the last two weeks, before the leaks started to dribble out on Tuesday.
After the fine start to his tenure at Fir Park the Motherwell manager would have been a popular, and no doubt deserving choice, had the SFA plumped for him. However, cast your mind back to September and October 2005 and try to think who you would hav
e voted for in a two-horse race between the Hearts manager who was striding away from the Old Firm in the SPL and the then Brighton manager who was manfully struggling to keep his side in the Football League Championship?
The SFA remit was to look for the right man who is most likely to do a good job in the long term, a man who had a history of success over a long period. Because Ferguson, Moyes and Strachan among others weren't going to consider it, the SFA were correct to look at good solid managers from the next level down who they could afford. Men who would be likely to take the job, who presumably would not be looking at it as a stepping stone and, with a bit of luck, men who were passionate Scots into the bargain.
Hence Tommy Burns, Mark McGhee or even Craig Levein were the right and sensible choices. For me Graeme Souness was the outsider and the most unlikely considering his history and his more caustic, adversarial style of management. We needed a man who builds teams often with more limited resources than his opponents, a man skilled at organising a group and instigating or retaining the collective team spirit. Part of Souness' style has been to use confrontation and this type of tough stance still has its place, but not I suspect for this group at this moment. The loss of one or two individuals due to personality clashes with the boss is not currently an option for the Scottish national team. Burley himself has a couple of very tough acts to follow in Walter Smith and Alex McLeish.
Burley's impressive record in England should not be underestimated. His first major job at Ipswich Town was a triumph for the unstylish East Anglian outfit. He dragged them out of the second tier of English football all the way to the dizzy heights of being fifth best team in the country the following season. A feat rightly recognised when he was named manager of the year.
We will always remember those special days during the last Scotland campaign when we duffed up the French and gave the Italians the fright of their lives at Hampden Park. Ipswich Town fans of a certain vintage feel the same way about the European journey they embarked on with Burley which led them all the way to Milan and the San Siro. I was there the night the Tractor Boys took on Inter and although they were well beaten they were not embarrassed. I will never forget the reaction of the travelling fans who had sincerely believed such glorious outings had been consigned to the history books along with the names Mariner, Wark, Butcher and Gates.
His next stop at Derby County saw him immediately take them to the play-offs in a division that is recognised as being the hardest to get promoted from in world football. Once again he wasn't spending with the best but he certainly ensured his team punched above its weight, and they were also doing it with some style and panache.
This is were he learned his trade, gained respect and ensured he will always be wanted as a manager. It was, however, done mostly out of the gaze of his own countrymen and this is the reason why he is seen as the surprise choice to lead the Tartan Army.
The Hearts story is fresher in the memory and has been the subject of as many pub conversations as any other story in modern Scottish football. To this day and for many more to come, Hearts fans as well as fans of every club outside the Old Firm will wonder what if? What if Burley had been given the time? What if he had been given the respect? What if he had simply been left alone and given the season to see if it could be done? We will never know but many suspect that the Old Firm were weak and that was the chance for the duopoly to be broken, the chance that may not come again for another generation at least.
He wasn't there long, but it is worth listening to what the Scottish international players working under Burley at the time think about the man. Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley are unstinting in their praise and Craig Gordon can't wait to be under his care again. The Scottish goalkeeper has been quick to underline just how good a team builder his former boss was, and considering what an impossible job it has looked at Tynecastle ever since, it is hard to doubt he has a real talent in that area.
I will admit that I have actually heard George Burley sounding drunk in an interview, but it was during the press conference at Hampden on Thursday. Then he was under the influence of nothing stronger than the excitement of getting the job he considers as the pinnacle for any Scottish manager and how refreshing it was to hear that attitude.
Some managers can say all the things you want to hear at an interview or press conference, but passion and energy shines through the rhetoric.
The full article contains 979 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
