Walter Smith won’t be behind the times if the SFA turn back the clock to offer him the Scotland manager’s job.
That is the view of former Scotland and Rangers striker Billy Dodds, who feels Smith would still be a good appointment despite preparing to celebrate his 70th birthday later this month.
Smith, who enjoyed a relatively successful spell in charge of the national team between late 2004 and early 2007, is being seriously considered by the beleaguered SFA to replace Gordon Strachan after the governing body’s failure to lure number one target Michael O’Neill from Northern Ireland.
He may notch up his three score and 10 on February 24 but Dodds still feels Smith has something to offer the country, probably working with a younger coach.
Asked if age would be a barrier to a second stint at Hampden, Dodds said: “No because you know what he can do.
“For me, it would be about whether he wants to go back into the pressure pot.
“It probably suits Walter because it is full-time but not full-time on the training ground.
“The pressure is still there but he can handle that.
“He is a wily fox, always has been.
“He knows how to handle the Press and knows how to handle big pressure situations.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a modern-day game and management is changing so much.
“But Alex Ferguson changed with the times and I think Walter knows how to change with the times.
“He’s been in this era. He knows how to work it.
“It’s not a daft one, I would say that. It’s not a daft one, with the candidates dropping away all the time.
“Only Walter knows whether he wants to say: ‘Yes I am going to put myself back into the melting pot.’
“It is a hard one for him.
“He was enjoying his own time, away with his family and he’s made all his money.
“He does not really need it.
“But you know, as a football person, as a football man, whether as a player or a coach, it is always there.
“People say ‘you are crazy going back in’ but you still go back for more.”
As for a possible assistant should it be Smith mark II, Dodds added: “I would not rule out anything.
“The way (now former SFA chief executive) Stewart Regan was talking before he stepped down is that it was not going to be Malky (Mackay) or they were talking of Scot Gemmill as a favourite.
“It probably won’t be him either.
“Walter will pick his own man.
“He did that with Ally McCoist and Tommy Burns.
“Would McCoist go back? Would Walter want him? Times move on. I am not saying Coisty should or shouldn’t go back, and obviously he has to find a third coach as well.
“He will have people in mind, whether McCoist or whoever.
“Maybe McCoist does not want to come back in – he has every gig under the sun these days!”
