The Final Four, or, “Oh God, please not Souness”

January 9th, 2008 | by: Ian Rose | View Comments

Well, the reputed final four candidates for the Scotland manager position have been leaked, and they are as follows. George Burley, Tommy Burns, Mark McGhee, and, yes, the toughest man in football, Graeme Souness.

I am, needless to say, a bit disappointed by both the inclusion of Souness and the exclusion of Kenny Dalglish, but it is nice to see both Burley and Burns as possibilities. Burley became possibly the most effective manager ever sacked when he was let go by Hearts’ insane Sith lord of an owner, Vlad Romanov, with Hearts at the top of the SPL, a rare position for any team not hanging its hat in Glasgow. He has since gone on to Southampton, in the notoriously difficult and unpredictable English Championship. Before coming to Tynecastle, he won the Premier League Manager of the Year award in 2001, the one and only time it has been taken by a manager other than the winner of the league. He’s 51, and McGhee is 50, both of which seem young for a national manager if what you’re trying to avoid is that manager leaving early. In fact, of the four, Souness is the old man at only 54.

To me, it’s a three-man race between Burley, Burns and McGhee. Mark McGhee, though deserving of attention for what he has done at Motherwell, just doesn’t seem ready to me. Part of me also wonders whether he will be able to leave a Motherwell side still reeling from the loss of their captain, Phil O’Donnell, in such tragic circumstances. Personally, I think McGhee should and will stay at Motherwell, and guide them to either a cup or a league European place. In all but his matches with Caley Thistle, I’ll be cheering him on. That leaves Burnsie and Burley. George Burley has more overall experience, and, perhaps most importantly, he left Hearts fans desperately wanting more. He has a reputation as a winner in Scotland, and yet a resume that extends south to the money league, and on paper, he may be the best candidate.

But Tommy Burns has something that Burley does not, and that is history with an Old Firm side. His current employers at Celtic have not been silent about their dislike for two straight Rangers men in the post, and as unfortunate as it is, the SFA are always looking to show balance between the Glasgow sides. In my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of SPL fans who support neither Celtic nor Rangers, the real problem is a lack of balance between the Old Firm and everyone else, but the SFA follows the money, and all the money is in Glasgow.

For all these reasons, I’m going to go ahead and predict that Tommy Burns will be the next manager of Scotland. It may be wishful thinking, as I think he’d do a fine job, and my record of prediction suggests that short of actually killing the man, I have just done the most in my power to keep him from achieving the job. If I’m wrong, as I often am, I will freely admit it and welcome (almost) any of the above four choices with open arms. Even if it is Souness, I will of course continue to love and support the Scotland side, but I can’t stress enough how poor of a decision I believe this would be.

The waiting, it seems, is almost over.