Passion not enough as George Burley is put out of his misery

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 21:55

IN THE end it had to happen, as a mercy to George Burley himself as much as anything else.

The Scottish Football Association acted swiftly yesterday to end the Scotland manager's anguish at the helm, after a tenure which had the appearance of a doomed enterprise from the start.

Burley insisted again and again that he loved the job, but this was becoming increasingly hard to believe as he battled with those frustrations anyone must expect as Scotland manager, and a few others beside. Even his own unveiling was a terse affair due to no fault of his own as Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, chose to engage in some score-settling with the media.

It is easy to describe him as fortune's plaything. The undeniable amount of ill-luck that bedeviled his reign perhaps obscured the managerial failings which, against Wales on Saturday, were so apparent.

Prior to Cardiff there had been suggestions that the task was beyond Burley, hints of his unsuitability for a position which demands that its occupant is able to project himself well. His speech could be garbled, the points he was seeking to make unclear. But he was passionate about the job, and – unlike some – wanted to be there.

Such enthusiasm, of course, is not enough. But it's wide of the mark to paint Burley as a tactical imbecile. His proactive response to Scotland's poor first-half display against Macedonia in September proved he could assess a game in the heat of the moment. His line-up against the Netherlands, which included the callow Steven Naismith, met with the approval of most.

The SFA will be attacked for not making yesterday's decision earlier, but deserves praise for acting now. It obviously wasn't working. The clear water between now and the start of the next campaign offers time to conduct a proper recruitment process.

But Burley had earned the right to be handed another chance having endured perhaps the most hapless - in the true sense of the word - qualifying campaign of any Scotland manager. He himself described it as "turbulent".

No wins in his first three friendly outings were followed by a 1-0 defeat in his first competitive fixture against Macedonia. Burley can point to the unhelpful scheduling, which saw Scotland forced to take on Macedonia in the searing heat of Skopje. He then watched in horror as Chris Iwelumo, a surprise call-up, missed an open goal in the next match against Norway.

Burley somehow steered the ship through more stormy waters, which included further fall-out from that Iwelumo miss. Kris Boyd decided that the sight of Iwelumo bounding from the substitutes' bench instead of him was too much to be bear. He walked away. Then Barry Ferguson, Burley's skipper, thought it sensible to drink the night away following another defeat, this time against the Netherlands. Allan McGregor joined him, and then partnered him in international purdah following further misbehaviour on the bench against Iceland.

This match was one of Burley's minor triumphs. One of Scotland's youngest-ever teams clinched a crucial win on a night which had begun with the unprecedented jeering of the Scotland captain's name as it was read out across the Tannoy. No matter Iceland's current lowly Fifa ranking, circumstances meant it hadn't been easy.

It was also difficult to reach the conclusion that Burley was making an almighty ricket of things amid such malignant interior influences. Even George Peat, the SFA president and one of the four men to appoint Burley, was forced to apologise on the morning – the morning – of the vital home fixture with Macedonia after a bizarre outburst which saw him appear to blame Iwelumo alone for the dropped points with Norway earlier in the campaign.

Burley never opted to shirk responsibility, nor rushed to point out the failings of those players in whom he had put his trust. But the sheer number of those handed Scotland jerseys during his reign of just 14 games – an incredible 52 – suggested something was not right. So, too, does a record of four successive away defeats, during which 14 goals were conceded and none scored.

The attention now turns to Burley's successor. In true Scotland style, even this is not a straightforward matter. The clamour for Craig Levein, one of the top-rated managers in the country, has been complicated due to a strained relationship with Gordon Smith. This has an apparent source in his refusal to play Smith's son, Grant, more often at Dundee United before releasing the player in 2007, and has been maintained due to Levein's penchant for run-ins with the authorities.

Graeme Souness has ruled himself out of the running, his ego bruised after being rejected during the last appointment process. Mark McGhee, too, lost out last time, and may have retained some sour feelings for the SFA due to its failure to contact him in person prior to the announcement of Burley as manager.

It promises to be a long hard winter ahead as the SFA interview panel re-convenes for the fifth time this decade.

Regrettably, the vacant position has rarely looked less attractive.