Scotland can reach Euro finals, insists John Collins

Published on Thursday 19 November 2009 23:02

JOHN Collins would love nothing more than to be in a Polish or Ukrainian stadium in less than three years time watching Scotland make their return to the finals of a major championship.

Whether he does so from the technical area or the stands, the man who is priced as short as 7-2 to become the next Scotland manager believes the odds on the national team ending their depressing run of failed qualification campaigns are nowhere near as long as has been suggested by some this week.

Collins, of course, was a key member of the last Scotland side to feature in a major finals back at the 1998 World Cup in France. He has no doubts the current crop of players have the capacity to be striding out at the Euro 2012 finals.

"If you ask if a manager is going to come and win the World Cup with Scotland, then no, that's not a possibility," said Collins. "But every manager's job is to take your group of players, analyse them, work on their weaknesses and get the team performing.

"You have to give them confidence, give them a game plan to work with, analyse the opposition, attack their weaknesses and defend against their strengths. Your job is to get the best out of what you've got, using the components given.

"You've got to put it into perspective with what you've got. What is success? For Scotland, it's got to be qualification. Is it attainable? It has to be, looking at the players we have. You need everybody available in key games and need to take your chances.

"I don't want it to be the case that I'll grow old waiting for Scotland to get back to a finals. My brothers, my family were all there in France and they're still talking about the stories, the laughs, sing-songs.

"I'm never going to make it as a player again but I'd love to make it as a supporter. Or a manager. Seriously, I take no pleasure in talking about us being the last team to do it. I want my kids to enjoy watching Scotland at a major finals."

Collins does not wish to be seen as touting himself for the vacancy created by George Burley's dismissal on Monday. The financially secure former Hibs manager has no need to do so. In giving a straight answer to a straight question on Tuesday morning, however, he ensured his name was among the first to be linked with the post.

He was at Hampden yesterday, but SFA chief executive Gordon Smith's sixth floor office was not the scene of his appointment. Collins was promoting ESPN's coverage of this weekend's SPL fixture between Dundee United and Celtic.

"I haven't heard from the SFA and I don't expect any calls," smiled Collins. "I did a radio interview on Tuesday morning and the first question was 'Somebody has mentioned your name in connection with the Scotland job, would you be interested?'. That was at 20 past eight in the morning. I said 'yes, I would be interested', finished the interview, switched my phone off and went to play golf for five hours. I came off the golf course and I was all over TV radio, everywhere. I switched the phone on and it was beeping like mad with messages. I've said I would be interested but I've not put my application form in, I'm not expecting a phone call."

The 41-year-old, capped 58 times by Scotland during his playing career, has been away from the football frontline since leaving his last post as coach of Belgian club Charleroi in May. He was on the shortlist to take charge of Monaco, one of his former teams, but lost out to Guy Lacombe.

"I was very close to the Monaco job in the summer, a whisker away from that job, but it never happened," he said. "It was a job I would have liked.

"I'm in a position where my kids are at an important age, my daughter is in her last year at school, I've got a 14-year-old and a ten-year-old and they're all happy.

"But if the right job comes up, I'll go back into football like that. I'm not interested in just taking any job, anywhere. I'm blessed, or very fortunate, in that I don't need to do that. But I enjoy football management and I'll have to be patient.

"If the right thing comes up, it's meant to be. That's the way I've always lived my life. I'll know when it's right. But I'm not pining for it. It's not as if I wake up saying 'I need to work, I need to be a manager somewhere'. It's not like that, I've definitely not got that in me.

"I enjoyed my time in management, I would like to think I'm fairly decent at it, so if the opportunity arises and something nice comes up, I'll go back in."

Collins believes the SFA are right to give their next manager free rein to select previously exiled or self-excluded players such as Barry Ferguson, Allan McGregor and Kris Boyd. He would not, however, go as far as to say he would pick them if he landed the job.

"It's the manager's job to pick the team, it should always be that way," he said.

"It's the next manager's choice. It's his team, his neck that's going to be on the line, his team and his tactics. He's got to make that choice.

"But it would be unfair of me to say what I would do. I wasn't involved, don't know the ins and outs of the situations surrounding those players, so it would be unfair to make any comment."

Collins, though, did confirm he would have no problem in selecting Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson for international duty despite his acrimonious fall-out with the player at Hibs.

"It's a completely hypothetical question but you get nowhere in life holding grudges," said Collins. "What has gone under the bridge is gone. Life is too short."