What a pathetic story....

http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1832052007

When did anyone ever listen to Richard Gough..?

It's a bit premature to start talking about who should replace McLeish.

However, it is highly likely that he will have moved back to club management by the time the World Cup campaign starts.

stupid story from a stupid man in what i always thought was a half decent newspaper !

If McLeish does decide to drop the Scotland job (which I dont think he will), then Souness is the last man I would want to see it given to. You cannot buy new players in the transfer market at international level, you have to work with what you have and get the best out of them .....

The draw for the world cup qualifiers is this weekend and while we may not have a WCQ fixture until September 2008 at the earliest, once we know what opposition we are up against it should be easy enough to organise a few friendlies against relevant (similar) opposition sides .... 10 months of preparation for a campaign that most fans are now looking forward to with interest .....

If McLeish does go, then continuity would be the watchword for me and that would make Roy Aitken my choice as next manager. A man who captained club and country (just like Souness) and who was renowned for urging his club side on to victory for the full 90 minutes of a game. Given the club affiliations however, it would be interesting to see if gordon Smith would agree  :004:

Roy Aitken for me aswell. Craig Levein would be a good choice aswell but doubt he would leave club management.

Souness would be my last choice. Hopefully McLeish will stay but if not I would be keen to see Jim Jeffries in the post.

stupid story from a stupid man in what i always thought was a half decent newspaper !

If McLeish does go, then continuity would be the watchword for me and that would make Roy Aitken my choice as next manager. A man who captained club and country (just like Souness) and who was renowned for urging his club side on to victory for the full 90 minutes of a game.

Given the club affiliations however, it would be interesting to see if gordon Smith would agree  :004:

Roy Aitken for me too.... in fact I think he could go on to achieve more than Big Eck has with some great young talent on the way up....

I really don't think club affiliations would influence Gordon Smith....

Not Roy Aitken for me.

are you's insane.  :029: roy aitken . no thanks and no chance either. there's asolutely no way he'd get the job.

Yup - I said Big Roy would be the next man in the job to some mates after a game we were at.

Better than Souness anyday.

are you's insane.  :029: roy aitken . no thanks and no chance either. there's asolutely no way he'd get the job.

Forget his spell at Aberdeen as an inexperienced manager - a job that also made the man that most ICT fans think was our best ever manager - look bad .... and instead look around at some of the message boards for other clubs he was at since then ... like Villa, where the fans are very positive about his influence and impact.

one quote (from a profile of him on the VillaTalk website) ....

"David O'Leary sees Aitken as a key reason for Villa's rise up the table with minimum resources! It is certainly clear that the Scot is very much now tied up in Villa and every ounce of passion goes into his match day work and work behind the scenes. He is very much a catalyst on the European march.

When O’Leary took on the job as Villa manager he insisted that Aiken would join him – despite talk that it would be Brian Kidd joining the Irishman at Villa Park and not the fiery Scotsman. His worth to a management team is clear to see – and Leeds fans’ blamed a lot of O’Leary’s last season at Elland Road, where the team failed to produce the football it could on Aiken’s ‘demotion’ after Brian Kidd was employed."

I remember going to Scotland games in the era both before he was captain of the national side and somewhat of a backup player, and also when he was captain of both his club and his country. The "Bear" was one of those players who was never the most skillful of players but his leadership qualities have never been in doubt and he captained the nation in 26 of his 57 international games.

I think he would do better as national manager than he would as a team manager primarily because he has a record of getting the best out of players whereas some managers at club level (Souness?) rely on buying their way out of trouble.

Incidentally, to bring it back to a (very loose) ICT connection .... his solitary international goal came from a header in the match that marked Kenny Dalglish's 100th cap ... a 3-0 victory over Romania in 1986, and his final game was against the same country in 1991 (which we lost 1-0). I dont think Marius Niculae played in either though ;)

Having said that - I am more than happy with McLeish as manager and Watson and Aitken as his assistants

Apparently McLeish is a wanted man in England - mainly cos they have no decent managers there

are you's insane.  :029: roy aitken . no thanks and no chance either. there's asolutely no way he'd get the job.

Forget his spell at Aberdeen as an inexperienced manager - a job that also made the man that most ICT fans think was our best ever manager - look bad .... and instead look around at some of the message boards for other clubs he was at since then ... like Villa, where the fans are very positive about his influence and impact.

one quote (from a profile of him on the VillaTalk website) ....

"David O'Leary sees Aitken as a key reason for Villa's rise up the table with minimum resources! It is certainly clear that the Scot is very much now tied up in Villa and every ounce of passion goes into his match day work and work behind the scenes. He is very much a catalyst on the European march.

When O?Leary took on the job as Villa manager he insisted that Aiken would join him ? despite talk that it would be Brian Kidd joining the Irishman at Villa Park and not the fiery Scotsman. His worth to a management team is clear to see ? and Leeds fans? blamed a lot of O?Leary?s last season at Elland Road, where the team failed to produce the football it could on Aiken?s ?demotion? after Brian Kidd was employed."

I remember going to Scotland games in the era both before he was captain of the national side and somewhat of a backup player, and also when he was captain of both his club and his country. The "Bear" was one of those players who was never the most skillful of players but his leadership qualities have never been in doubt and he captained the nation in 26 of his 57 international games.

I think he would do better as national manager than he would as a team manager primarily because he has a record of getting the best out of players whereas some managers at club level (Souness?) rely on buying their way out of trouble.

Incidentally, to bring it back to a (very loose) ICT connection .... his solitary international goal came from a header in the match that marked Kenny Dalglish's 100th cap ... a 3-0 victory over Romania in 1986, and his final game was against the same country in 1991 (which we lost 1-0). I dont think Marius Niculae played in either though ;)

Having said that - I am more than happy with McLeish as manager and Watson and Aitken as his assistants

yeah his influence and impact at villa may have been good, as it probably is with scotland,  but he wasn't villa boss  and they didn't think highly enough of him to offer him the job.

he's a decent backroom team member who i'd be im happy scotland has in that capacity and that capacity only. would be staggered if scotland even thought of him as manager should mcleish depart. but with any luck we wont find out

with any luck we wont find out

we will have to agree to differ on this one .... but I can agree with that last part !!!

Methinks Caleyoneup is probably too young to recall just what an inspirational figure Roy Aitken was for Celtic & Scotland...

Like Scotty I'm very happy with McLeish in charge but it's good to know Aitken's around. I would have no fears about him taking charge in the future....

I can recall much disquiet at Ibrox when Walter Smith succeeded Graeme Souness as boss there....

There were many there who only saw Walter as a good Number 2....

Methinks Caleyoneup is probably too young to recall just what an inspirational figure Roy Aitken was for Celtic & Scotland...

Like Scotty I'm very happy with McLeish in charge but it's good to know Aitken's around. I would have no fears about him taking charge in the future....

I can recall much disquiet at Ibrox when Walter Smith succeeded Graeme Souness as boss there....

There were many there who only saw Walter as a good Number 2....

unfortunately johnboy im old enough to  remember his playing days well and  great player he was. just not for me as boss but hey ho

Aston Villa finished 6th, 10th and 16th in the three seasons that O'Leary and Aitken spent there.

They had a good start but it can hardly be described as a success story.

Aitken hasn't been a manager since he was sacked by Aberdeen 10 years ago. This is not the sort of pedigree we should be looking for if and when McLeish leaves.

David Moyes should be the number one choice. How much further can he realistically take Everton?

We should break the bank to try and get him and if he doesn't fancy it then turn to another manager who has a proven take record of getting the best out of his players. Craig Levein is such a manager.

Souness doesn't even warrant comment.

There's a saying - a "face like a weel skelped a.se" that sums up Souness and my opinion of him as any future Scotland Manager.  God forbid and long live Eck.

End of.

Levein is one I could live with too ... if and when McLeish decides its time to move on, until then, I am happy with what we have.

I hadn't realised that Eck had left his job, must have missed the papers that day.

Sportsound just confirmed that McLeish is top of Birmingham's list.

Other names being chucked around as a possible replacement are Jim Jeffries and Joe Jordan.

Well ... If he goes I hope Roy Aitken gets a chance.... A much better choice than Jordan, or Jeffries....

Don't think they can afford Davie Moyes....

I think we can kiss goodbye to McLeish.

"I don't have any plans to vacate my position" is not any sort of denial of interest in other jobs, and is a million miles away from something like "I'm fully committed to Scotland and will be leading our World Cup campaign."

Who can blame him for wanting a move to the Premiership, be it Birmingham or the next one that comes along.

After the World Cup draw yesterday, Chico Young again asked Eck if he'd be in charge for the campaign. The response did not contain anything remotely resembling the word yes, it was all non-committal diplomatic phrasing like "the first match is a long way off"and "a lot can happen in football". Who can blame him for keeping his options open and at least he's being honest about it.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that Billy Davies is now unemployed.

IF the Scotland vacancy arises this week, would he be a contender?

Re: Billy Davies - I would hope not.

I personally think Big Eck would be crazy to leave, he's still young, we've a good chance of qualifing from that group and his reputation would be throught the roof if he got us to the world cup at which point he could pretty much pick his next job.

Agree with KB here ...

If Eck gets us through the WC qualifiers and into the tournament itself then he will already be lauded as a hero because we havent been to any major competition since 1998 ....

If he then manages to take a team that is currently performing well and manages to get us to the second round (or beyond) then he will become the 'best manager' the country has ever had and would literally be able to pick any job in the UK.

Fanciful perhaps, but the euro campaign has shown that we have a good squad, and if we can perform for the next two years the same way as we have for the last two then he may well have the players to do it !

Bye bye McCleish