Dammit … Eck to Birmingham City
By: Ian Rose | November 27th, 2007I guess it was coming. I should have expected it. International managing jobs aren’t what they used to be, and most managers in the prime of their careers want to be club coaches. Still, Birmingham? I guess 30,000 pounds a week is a bit much to ignore. Alex McLeish did a great job for Scotland, and kept up the pace set by Walter Smith. But will his replacement, whoever it may be, be able to maintain the standard that Smith and McLeish set? We’ll see as the SFA begins to work out a list of candidates. Luckily, it’s a while before the next senior national team match. The suddenness of Eck’s departure is a little disappointing, but I guess if he was leaving, this is the best time, with nine months until the next big tournament, the World Cup qualifiers. Good luck to Eck at Birmingham - if results so far this season are any guide, he’s going to need it. He leaves the national team better than he found it, even if his manner of leaving wasn’t the best. I’ll post more on possible candidates soon.
Category: Scotland National Team
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share
      |
Comments
-
The SFA needs to do a better job at keeping their coaches. Maybe they should get a better lawyer writing those contracts. If I recall correctly, didn’t Walter Smith also abandon the Scotland NT job in the midst of Euro 2008 qualification when Rangers came knocking on his door?
Posted from
United States
-
He certainly did. It’s hard these days for any FA to keep a manager. The national job really is a part-time job, and right now, whoever gets hired has 9 months before any matches of any importance, and then only 8 matches because we’re in the smallest qualifying group. If I was a professional manager, I’d want the day-in, day-out action of a club job too. I think, a lot of times, the worst managers in European football have the national jobs, which used to be the prime jobs.
Posted from
United States
Comments are closed
Home 
