Maurice Malpas thinks Gordon Strachan may have had enough

Maurice Malpas has cast doubt on his former Scotland team-mate Gordon Strachan’s willingness to continue as manager of the national team following the abortive bid to reach the 2018 World Cup finals.

Strachan’s current contract expires next month and the Scottish FA’s board of directors will discuss his position at their next scheduled meeting tomorrow.

The 60-year-old is known to have continued support among board members, most notably from president Alan McRae who has already gone on record with his desire for Strachan to remain in charge for the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.

Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan has pledged there will be “no knee-jerk reaction” but a decision is expected to be reached within the next fortnight.

But Strachan has been steadfastly non-committal whenever asked about his future in the role and Malpas believes the former Celtic boss may be ready to step down.

“I’m not very sure if the SFA will want to get rid of Gordon but I’m not too sure if Gordon wants to stay,” said 55-times capped Malpas who played alongside Strachan at the 1986 World Cup finals.

No Scotland manager has remained in the job after overseeing two consecutive complete qualification campaigns without success. Sunday’s 2-2 draw in Slovenia ended Scotland’s hopes of making it to Russia next summer, constituting another failure for Strachan after the collapse of the initially promising Euro 2016 campaign.

It has reduced his approval rating amongst the Tartan Army, the majority of whom had backed his retention for the World Cup qualifiers, and Malpas feels Strachan may not want to stay in the firing line.

“Is the SFA going to judge him on how he performed in the last year or is it in the [whole] campaign?,” added Malpas.

“Is Gordon going to say ‘I’ve had two campaigns and we’ve not qualified, I’ve done my best and I’m not going to take any more abuse – I’m away?’”

Malpas, who also played for Scotland at the 1990 World Cup finals and 1992 European Championship finals, expressed his regret at the country’s tenth successive failure to qualify for a major tournament.

The former Dundee United defender observed that the now 20-year absence from the biggest stage is denying Scotland’s leading players the opportunity to maximise their potential.

“Guys like Darren Fletcher, for being such a good player never to have played in any major finals - it will be disappointing for him,” said Malpas.

“He’s played for Manchester United and played in the Champions League and he’s been great for Scotland but the poor lad’s never got a chance go to and play and experience a finals.

“As you get older you get greedier and you’re desperate to qualify for things like that. When you’re younger you think, ‘it will happen next time’. Darren has never had the chance to do that.

“Playing at finals made you a better player. I went to Mexico in 1986 and I was only a kid and I came back a better player.

“In the qualifying games you’re mixing with the likes of Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness and you learn from them.

“Then you go away on a trip and you’re in each other’s pocket and you learn. In my day you didn’t know who you were up against in terms of the opposite player. You had to learn to play against players, different styles of football. I had never played against a South American team before. I didn’t know how they played, they didn’t play they just kicked f*** out of you. Things like that.”