George Burley - Exit the Quiet Man

We’ve been here before. Far too many times. Scottish football in crisis, our clubs being outclassed in Europe, our national team shamed on the international stage. We’ve tended to bounce back before. The usual clichés about us being a small country punching above our weight and those good and bad times alternate in cycles are usually trotted out by those in power in the corridors of power at Hampden Park. This time, however, the feeling of despondency goes deeper. Scots clubs have been nothing less than shambolic in Europe this season and they will soon resort to type by being eliminated from the Champions League and Europa League by Christmas. As for Scotland, an inept World Cup qualifying campaign was followed by a hapless display in a friendly against those giants of world football - Wales.

Not since the dark days immediately following the debacle that was the World Cup Finals in Argentina in 1978 has Scottish football been at such low ebb.

The financial crisis affecting the game in Scotland - intensified by the collapse of the television deal with failed Irish broadcaster Setanta in the summer - has affected the Old Firm’s attempt to dine at the top table of European football. The fallout of the financial explosion hasn’t affected the national team in the same way. However, there appeared to be an alarming trait during George Burley’s time in charge - that of a lack of commitment from certain players.

In the immediate aftermath of Scotland’s woeful display and subsequent 3-0 defeat in Cardiff last Saturday, BBC Radio Scotland’s Chick Young - for it was he - said he had been told off the record by a player that he didn’t want to play for Scotland that day as it was a meaningless game. Pressed for the name of this player the not so bold Chick wouldn’t divulge the information using the excuse that it was off the record. Which begged the question if it were off the record why did Chick mention it at all? However, it also begged another question - was the player's apparent disinterest designed to put George Burley literally in a can’t win situation? It wouldn’t be the first time ‘player power’ has influenced the fate of a manager.

Back in May 1993, a Hearts team playing out the dying embers of a disappointing season faced a soon to be relegated Falkirk at Brockville Park. The maroons had little to play for having lost four league games in succession since losing their Scottish Cup semi-final to Rangers the previous month. Hearts were two goals down at half time and manager Joe Jordan’s team-talk at the interval clearly went collectively in one ear and right out the other. Hearts lost three goals within the first few minutes of the second half and eventually lost the game 6-0 to a team then managed by Jim Jefferies. It was a pitiful performance, which beggared belief among the travelling support. A few years later, I was at a Hearts shareholders dinner where striker John Robertson was a guest speaker. He ‘confessed’ that evening that once Hearts lost the third goal in that game and knew they weren’t going to get anything from it the team made a collective decision to ‘down tools’ and conceded three more. Robbo admitted few of the players liked manager Joe Jordan or his methods and they felt an embarrassing result would give then chairman Wallace Mercer little option but to dispense with the services of the former Scotland striker. And so it was less than forty-eight hours later that Jordan was given his marching orders.

I thought of that game when I heard the reports of Scotland’s loss in Cardiff last Saturday. And again today when I heard that George Burley had been sacked as Scotland manager. The quiet man had fallen on his sword.

Burley has, of course, crossed swords with more than one Scotland player since his appointment in January 2008. And it doesn’t take a genius to see there’s a common thread. Firstly, Rangers striker Kris Boyd took exception to merely being on the substitute’s bench during Scotland’s World Cup qualifier against Norway at Hampden in October 2008. He took even more offence at seeing Chris Ilewumo being brought on instead of him in the second half and seethed as he and the nation witnessed the Wolves striker being guilty of one of the most glaring misses in front of goal ever by a Scotland player. The game ended goalless and the end was already in sight for the Scots chances of going to the finals in South Africa next year. Boyd went in the huff and refused to play for Scotland again under Burley’s tutelage.

Six months later after a miserable but entirely predictable 3-0 defeat by The Netherlands in Amsterdam there was the infamous ‘Boozegate Episode’ (© all newspapers) Captain Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Alan McGregor were dropped from the starting eleven to play Iceland four days later following their late night drinking session when the team returned from Amsterdam. As they took their places on the substitute’s bench, the pair made offensive gestures to the media. This sealed their fate as far as Burley was concerned and, like their Rangers team mate Boyd, their international careers were finished - under Burley at least.
The feeling that some players no longer wished to play for Scotland under the former Ayr United, Ipswich Town and Hearts manager intensified during the shockingly poor performance in Cardiff last weekend. Steven Naismith and Kenny Miller - both Rangers players - looked lethargic. Gary Caldwell struggled as he has for much of this season while Stephen McManus looked less than fit. Captain Darren Fletcher - so impressive for Manchester United this season - looked like a fish out of water although he publicly backed the manager after the game. Then you would expect your captain to do so. However, you might also expect the captain to be the man who disgruntled players go to vent their feelings.

Whatever the rumblings of discontent among the players the least that is expected of them is that they give their all for their country. That they show the same commitment to their nation the always large numbers of the travelling Tartan Army do. In years gone by the likes of Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Dave Mackay and the aforementioned Joe Jordan would have run through a brick wall to play for their country. The huge swathes of money in the modern game nowadays mean some players don’t want to miss playing for their clubs through picking up an injury on international duty - particularly if it’s a meaningless friendly being played just weeks after failure to qualify for the World Cup Finals. However, no matter if they have important club games coming up and no matter what gripe they have with the manager, playing for Scotland should always be an honour and a privilege. If there are players who don’t want to do so - even in games like the one against Wales who, it should be said, have also failed to qualify for the World Cup but showed an enthusiasm and eagerness that just wasn’t there for the Scots - then they should be shown the door a la Ferguson and McGregor.

It was difficult to see how George Burley could have survived the crisis. It seemed to me that he had lost the support of much of the media, the fans and crucially some of the players. With Walter Smith’s future at Ibrox anything but certain I wouldn’t rule out a return to the international arena for the present Rangers manager. The irony of such a situation wouldn’t be lost on many.

Whatever happens the nation should come first before any personal vendetta against the manager. It’s the very least Scotland expects.