Levein on a jet plane out of Hampden

Levein on a jet plane out of Hampden

November 4th 2012.

That was the day that the SFA bigwigs finally did something worthy this year and got rid of the disaster that was Craig Levein as the Scotland manager.

It’s a day that should be celebrated with street parties, but the mood was really more subdued. Whilst great to see the useless numpty depart, you still have to have a heavy heart at the fact that it’s too little, too late, with any hopes of being on the ‘Road to Rio’ ending up in a roadside ditch.

Levein had totally lost the support of the bulk of the Tartan Army and after the disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign so far, his position really was untenable.

His spell as Scotland manager has been a shambles and he will be remembered pretty much solely for negative reasons, and there’s been so many of them to choose from.

Squeaking by Liechtenstein at Hampden. Being humiliated and torn apart by the US in May. And of course, Prague. We could go on.

The worst Scotland manager ever? Worst than Bertie Vogts? At least the German tried to bring through the young players.

Never hire anyone with Cowden connections is what I take from all of this. Hated him then. Hate him now. And we’ll still hate him here at AFTN wherever he goes next.

Thankfully he apparently hates East Fife as much in return, so we’ll never have to have him here at Bayview.

So what now? And why did this sacking take so long? If he’d gone after the two home games, or at the end of the failed Euros campaign, would we be in better shape?

After all, he played a lot of the players most of us would have picked? Is it them who have let us down?

Well yes, everyone has.

Our World Cup hopes are doomed and we’ve been reduced to facing Luxemburg next week in friendlies. Not even a hint of glamour there for either team.

At least whoever takes over can’t really take us much lower.

I’m almost at the stage of giving up on international football. My other adopted country of Canada haven’t made the World Cup since 1986 and they had a great chance to make it to the final qualifying stages of the CONCACAF region. They just needed a point in Honduras. One single, measly point. Instead they got destroyed 8-1!

I must have broken a lot of mirrors in my previous lives if that’s who I’ve been given to support on the national stage!

Right now it’s looking like Gordon Strachan for the Scotland job, but I’d love to see him (or whoever get the job) bring a legend like Kenny Dalglish or Joe Jordan in beside him. Just to have some kind of nod towards the past when we actually qualified for these tournaments.

We’ve nothing to lose now, so it has to be a case of the new guy blooding the youngsters and the talent we have coming through at U23, U21, and even U19 level, and looking with an eye to the very long future by keeping and playing these guys together as a unit from now until whenever. That’s what so many other successful countries have been doing.

Signal the end to the old guard like Kenny Miller. You’ve served us well, thank you for that, but fare ye well.

The next appointment as Scotland boss is vital to our footballing future. We can’t rush in to the decision.

Another failure like Levein and we’ll be reduced to be at Luxemburg’s level for a long, long time to come.

If this year has taught us anything though, it’s that it’s hard to feel safe for the future when that future lies in the hands of the Scottish Football Association.

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Authored by: GoF

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