I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot the last couple of days, and this post has been brought on by the fact that I just saw the front of the early edition of the Record saying that George Burley is hours away from getting the bullet as manager of the Scotland football team. Before I start though, it’s cards on the table time. I’m a card-carrying member of the Scotland Supporters Club, a regular at home games, both competitive and friendly. I don’t really travel to away matches much as I’d like, but that’s another story. I’ll also make it clear just now that much of what is about to come is based on my observations and will contain lots of conjecture, rather than proper journalistic fact. I’m not a journalist, after all! One other thing, I should make it clear now that I have been quite an open supporter of Burley, in spite of widespread disagreement from many of my friends and fellow supporters. Anyway…
On Saturday, Scotland were away in a friendly match against Wales. Before the match, I had a decision to make; to either stay in Glasgow to watch the match in the pub, or head down to Irvine to watch Pollok take on Irvine Meadow. Bear in mind, that I’ve either attended, or watched more or less every Scotland game for the last umpteen years. The decision didn’t take much thought to make. The Pollok game promised to be competitive and entertaining, while Scotland’s track record in friendlies is far from impressive, and I know from experience that they’re often not the most engaging of encounters, usually bereft of much in the way of flowing football, goals or even, dare I say it, effort from the players on either side. I made a conscious decision, then, to miss the Scotland game.
I made the right choice too. Scotland, as I’m sure you are well aware, were humiliated 3-0 by Wales. Of course, this has led for calls for the manager, George Burley to go, and it is this that I want to explore. Incidentally, Pollok earned a hard-fought 2-2 draw in an utterly gripping match! Definitely the right choice!
Burley got the Scotland job after a highly successful unsuccessful attempt to qualify for Euro 2008. In a group containing both finalists from the previous World Cup, and a decent Ukraine team too. We finished third in that group, by the managers making the team into one that was better that the sum of their parts. This was achieved by playing a tight, well-organised game of football. It was seldom beautiful to watch, but the joy of watching Scotland running out deserved winners against France at Hampden; and James McFadden’s wündergoal in the return match more than made up for that. Of course, it took two managers to do that. Walter Smith was enticed back to Rangers midway through that campaign and Alex McLeish took the reigns, before leaving for Birmingham days after defeat against Italy ruled us out of qualification.
Burley took over a team that was on a high, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that my expectations were equally high. For sure, I know that we punched well above our weight in that campaign, but with the same players, and a manager who was well respected after spells with relatively successful spells at Hearts and a number of English teams. The press, on the other hand had other ideas, preferring some of the other candidates they had been touting for the job, including Graeme Souness. From day one, the press seemed largely unimpressed by the appointment; or at the very least failed to get entirely behind the new manager.
Burley’s tenure as manager, for my money, has been characterised by two things: the dressing-room, and the media. It was also defined by two matches, the home and away ties against Norway. The campaign got off to a mediocre start, but the first really big game was the home match against Norway. It was obvious that to get into second spot and have a chance of qualifying, they were our main rivals. That day started off very hopeful, but finished with an uninspiring 0-0 draw. And yes, that miss from Iwelumo. I maintain to this day, that anyone could have missed that. It was a freak incident. They happen sometimes in football. Iwelumo came on, and played really well, I thought. He look lively, he was getting into good positions. Then that happened. With one sclaffed tap on the ball, he had ended his international career. But all hell really broke loose after the game, when Kris Boyd of Rangers, who had warmed the bench all day announced that he was never playing for Scotland under Burley ever again. Those in the press who were against Burley jumped on this, and in truth, it has overshadowed the entirety of his time as manager.
Then came ‘Boozegate’. Captain Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Alan McGregor relegated to the bench after an all-night drinking session, and then banned forever after (wait for it!) pretending to not give TV cameras the vicky from said bench during the subsequent match. Really, this incident and (och, why not?) Boydygate point to the same thing, as far as I can see—a wee clique of players who had decided that this manager wasn’t for them, and who were hell bent on undermining him and doing whatever they wanted, Damned United style. Whose fault is this? Really, I’d hope that grown-ups wouldn’t behave this way towards their leader. But at the same time, it’s the leader’s job to command the respect of his lieutenants. Is there blame on both parts? My gut instinct is to be sympathetic to Burley in this respect, if for no other reason than I’ve been in that position myself (albeit not in a footballing context), and I know how difficult it can be trying to manage a group while being undermined by pack-minded individuals.
After all this blew over, if it ever really did, the campaign trundled on. A mixed bag of results led up to the away match against Norway. Horrific. We were torn apart 4-0. It’s hard to find anything positive to say about this. Scotland were inept, in terms of players’ performances—for one, Gary Caldwell’s stupid, but deserved, sending-off lighting the blue touchpaper in terms of Norway’s performance—but also tactically too, in light of that red card. Burley got it wrong. Really wrong. He made some substitutions that I can only describe as baffling. That said, I’ve never been one to go overboard on things like this though. Football teams and football managers do get it wrong sometimes. A 4-0 gubbing is hard to take as a fan, but ever keen to see the positives, I felt that until the red card, the team was set out fairly well and it (whatever ‘that’ is) wasn’t going too badly (for the first 15 minutes or so!) It was a tough point to argue though. Perhaps rightly, the media, and a good proportion of Scotland fans were vociferously calling for Burley’s head.
Two good performances in the last two group games led to Burley being publicly supported by the SFA, and it was made clear that he was staying. I was really pleased about this. Those last two matches (a convincing win against Macedonia and a narrow defeat by the Netherlands) showed real signs of progress, and the players played as a unit, with a real fire-in-the-belly approach to the game. I was pleased that Burley was being asked to stay on. He’s got them now, they’re doing it his way, and it looks like it’s going to work! Ever the optimist, I continued to argue the toss.
Not any more. The result on Saturday was curtains. After two years of defending Burley and looking for positives at a time when there have been few to find, enough is, I think, enough. It is now quite clear that Burley is unable to motivate his players in this set-up on a consistent basis. It’s not a case of not beating Wales. We were thrashed. Humiliated. He is no longer the right man for the job. I’m afraid it really is time for him to go.
I believe, quite sincerely, that George Burley is a decent football manager, and I would be really pleased to see him to go on and be successful elsewhere (if for no other reason than to prove me right!) It’s clear that, from the outset, the Scotland job has been a poisoned chalice for him. He has been brave in the face of constant niggling criticism from the press. He has tried his best to manage a wilfully childish strain running through the squad of players. Perhaps it’s no wonder that he’s been unsuccessful. But unsuccessful he has been. It’s time for a change.
football
I was up stupidly early the other day, and having already played World of Warcraft quite extensively, I stuck on the telly. I was delighted (and maybe a bit embarassed) to discover that they still show ‘Pages from Ceefax’ when there’s nothing else to put on in the morning. I was flooded with fond memories of reading Digitiser and the music pages on C4, and also of those times when a lack of TV or radio coverage meant that the only way of following some football matches was by sitting watching the Teletext pages tick round and cheering when you got a score update (one in your favour, at least).
