Let's tie up Walter for a long time to come

[calscot 0]

And I'm not being kinky here...

 

Scotland have a tradition of keeping poor quality managers in a job for a long time after their sell by date, so let's make sure we don't lose a prime quality one.

 

Let's be honest, Walter Smith is not really among the best club managers Scotland has produced. He had great domestic success at Rangers but it was at a time when we were spending far more than our opposition and had possibly the highest wage bill in the UK. Celtic were in turmoil and Smith took advantage.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think Smith is a good manager, worse managers than he would have lost one of those titles in the 9 in row years despite the gulf between teams. But one CL run apart, his European results and his struggle with Everton albeit with financial problems, showed where his level lies. Good and solid, well above average, but not a world beater.

 

However Scotland have been very poorly mismanaged for two decades - since Roxburgh took the reins. We had a very good team at the time and although he got us to a couple of finals, we would lose to the likes of Costa Rica through terrible tactics and an overcautious approach.

 

Brown was a slightly better manager but still average at best. He too couldn't bring the best out of a reasonably talented squad and he couldn't do that at Preston either.

 

Vogts, just didn't have a scooby. He confused the players tactically and made them feel inferior, telling them how poor a crop he had to choose from almost on a daily basis. He also capped players who should never have donned a dark blue top.

 

However, Smith seems to have galvanised a bunch of so called journeymen into a team with great self belief, who know if they work hard and do their job they can get results.

 

It's night and day over those previous managers who would spin us tales of caution against the likes of the Faroes and then struggle against them. Walter has taken a team who ply their trade in the English Premiership (whom some would have you as the best league in the world) and in the top half of the SPL, which is still a decent league by European standards. The players are plenty good enough to give a team of postmen and bankers a good thrashing, and for the first time in my memory, they did so.

 

We should definitely be better than the likes of the Balkans and Walter has taken us to the best of them and won soundly only letting in the most spectacular of goals.

 

The win against France was unexpected, but we all expected the team to have a decent go (I was very optimistic for a draw) and history suggests we can claim the odd win or draws especially at home against the greatest teams in the world if we play to our full ability.

 

History is littered with Scotland wins, draws and unlucky losses against the likes of Brazil, England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Holland.

 

I think we've always had the players who could do something reasonable if they played to their strengths, but what we lacked was consistency and a bit of luck with the former being down to the manager.

 

Walter Smith was always good at man management and basic strategy without being a tactical mastermind ("What's a tactic?"). He can definitely make a team play as a team. This really lends itself to international football as you only have a limited time with the players so intricate training sessions are a waste of time as are very unorthodox formations and tactics, since the players are more used to their different club systems.

 

He has an advantage here over more tactically astute managers as he knows the stuff that really counts on this stage. This could make him achieve more acclaim as a Scotland manager than his many trophies for Rangers.

 

He's shown what he can do, even that the job was made for him, so lets enter a period of stability and let him steer Scotland into an era where we at least punch our weight for a change. Give him a long contract and let him become a Scotland legend.

[craig 5,195]

I only needed to read the headline calscot to 100% agree with you.

 

Not only does he have the team playing in a way that makes us hard to beat and also with confidence, he seems to have truly brought the life and soul back into the fans - the famous Hampden roar was evident on Saturday.

[calscot 0]

If he keeps the team playing as it is the SFA will soon regret having a 52k stadium instead of a Millenium like 78k. That would really produce a roar.

[Laudbertz 0]

Agree with all that, he has pretty much the same team as Vogts, yet they look like a totally different team with the way they are playing and their confidence.

 

If the SFA let him go, there will be a total uproar from the fans. Not only that, the players may feel let down and go back to the way we played a few years ago.