Gordon Strachan had done the hard bit.
He cracked it. Assembled a group of players who were enthused about playing for their country, devised a style of play that suited them rather than trying to find players to suit a style, and he was winning with it.
Scotland were a decent side, bordering on good.
Around the time when we were giving Germany and Poland a run for their money away from home and beating Republic of Ireland at Celtic Park, I wouldn’t have swapped squads or managers with Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic.
Wales were a Gareth Bale injury away from it all going wrong, Northern Ireland were benefitting from as soft a group as there was to be found in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and Martin O’Neill and his Boys in Green looked like yesterday’s men.
Scotland had pace and purpose and Strachan was chiefly responsible for it.
But after providing the platform for at the very least making it to the Euro play-offs, with reasonable cause to think the finals in France were attainable, the Strachan we hoped for regressed into the Strachan we feared we would get.
At first he got away with bizarre team selections and tactics – the defensive formation at home to Gibraltar that would have been punished by anybody else in the group, and the the selection of Craig Forsyth at left-back in Dublin.
But a loss of focus and bravery caught up with the Scots in Georgia and the team has never been the same force again.
For far too long players have been picked when they’re not in form, while others have been left out when they are. Tactics can switch from lump it up to the big man (Lithuania) to a possession game three days later (Slovakia). Those of us watching are befuddled and the players look as if they are as well.
A hungry, well-drilled and dynamic side has been transformed into a weary-looking, confused and passive one.
Even a win at Wembley won’t turn this ship around. It would be a one-off last stand. Strachan would take it as vindication that his peculiar stubbornness was justified, he would be emboldened and it would all be going wrong again within no time.
Despite a group table that doesn’t look fatal at first glance, qualification for the World Cup will not happen. Don’t torture yourself. The debate will soon be moving on, if it hasn’t already. Who next after Strachan?
It feels as if this is the time to go in a different direction.
Even though I don’t agree with being allowed to do it in the first place (international football should be about our best against their best) the SFA should look beyond our shores.
Berti Vogts can’t be used forever as a reason to not go foreign, and he wasn’t actually all bad. Oh for the glory days when Scotland were getting gubbed in Amsterdam in a play-off.
Lars Lagerback should obviously be a candidate given his achievements with Iceland.
But so too should Guus Hiddink.
His last international manager’s job, with his home country, wasn’t a success. But his first spell with them was. So too were two years in Australia. A CV that can boast World Cup and European Championship semi-finals with South Korea and Russia, nations of not significantly greater standing than Scotland (they might not take too kindly to the comparison, mind you) is an eye-catching one.
England were understood to have him high on their short-list had they decided not to go domestic with Sam Allardyce, on the understanding that he would school a young English coach before handing over.
He was also “happy” to be considered for a return to Russia.
A vastly experienced manager, with much more good than bad to his name, assisted by a young protege who knows the nuts and bolts of the Scottish game at his side? Hiddink and Alex Neil would do for me.
