Never has our national football team been at a lower ebb than now.

After just four games Scotland’s hopes of reaching the World Cup in Russia appear to be gone,  while the future of manager Gordon Strachan is growing bleak. 

Losing 3-0 to the Auld Enemy on Friday for many was the last straw as we now set to suffer a 20-year absence from a major finals.  Our top team give their verdict on where it has gone wrong – and what needs to be done to fix it.

 
Cut to the cure, says Graeme MacPherson

GORDON STRACHAN will hold talks with the SFA about his future in the coming days and a parting of the ways now looks inevitable. 

The only real issue now is whether he jumps or he is pushed. Members of the SFA board are said to be unhappy with the team sitting in fifth place in their World Cup qualifying group and they are not the only ones. 

If there is no shame in losing away to England at Wembley, then Strachan has to carry the can for his team failing to beat Lithuania at home and collapsing so spectacularly against Slovakia.

The impressive victories by the two Irish teams at the weekend show that Scotland should be doing much better than their recent results and performances. 

With no games until March, this would be the perfect time to seek out a new manager. 

Michael O’Neill has been gaining rave reviews for his work with Northern Ireland and ought to be on the SFA’s radar, while someone like Lars

Lagerback – the Swede that took Iceland to the Euros – should also be approached. 

It will be a big job to restore Scotland’s crumbling reputation but appointing a fresh face should at least get things moving in the right direction. 

Read more: David Moyes is open to becoming to next Scotland manager if Gordon Strachan goes


Wholesale change needed, Says Scott Mullen
WE can learn more from the build-up to the defeat against England than we can from the fall out. While post-match there has been plenty of feet stamping and arm waving at the way Scotland capitulated in the second half at Wembley, the apathy towards the game as a showpiece fixture across certain quarters tell its own story. 

I spent two days in England prior to the 3-0 defeat and hardly a question was asked about Gordon Strachan’s team, barely a column inch in a newspaper mentioning the side that would soon be getting pumped in pink.

The indifference from some Scotland supporters was also hard to ignore.
While Strachan may lose his job, a clearout at Hampden board room level is also needed. 

Our national game is no further forward now than what it was before the current manager took over, but he can only work with what he has. 

Yes, his squad and team selection may be up for debate, but so too is the fact we still have not replaced Brian McClair as performance director. 

We have tried and failed at improving our game from within. It is time we sought the help of those from successful nations across the continent – step forward Iceland, Northern Ireland and Wales. 

Only when we ditch the view that glorious failure is acceptable will we progress.

Spend money to get the right man in, says Neil Cameron

It is now exactly two years ago since we beat Ireland at Celtic Park and looked dead certs to finish at worst second in our European qualifiers.

That we could not even reach fourth, the mistakes Strachan made in Dublin and Georgia cost us, should have meant we had a new manager by now.

If we had the defence of ten years ago which twice did so well against France, then we’d be in better shape.

However, as a team, Scotland have gone backwards. The manager’s refusal to change formation and ignore in-form players in this campaign has done for him and the country.

David Moyes, Michael O’Neill or someone really leftfield such as Roy Keane is who the SFA should be looking at next. 

Read more: David Moyes is open to becoming to next Scotland manager if Gordon Strachan goes

Everyone must raise game, says Stewart Fisher

REMARKABLY, Scotland aren’t mathematically out of the running for second place from Group F but already this campaign reeks of failure. 

Collectively, it hasn’t been good enough and with chief executive Stewart Regan in the crosshairs, it seems only a matter of time before there is a parting of the ways with Gordon Strachan.

In the short term, some freshness could do Scotland good, although it is worth pointing out that for every new manager bounce there is also quite frequently a period of poor results as a new boss experiments with players and formations.

Should Strachan jump, or be pushed, in the next few days then the job should be opened up to all-comers and an extensive recruitment process undergone to discover the right man. 

David Moyes, in the event that Sunderland isn’t everything he thought it might be, would be one good unifying candidate, while foreign options such as Lars Lagerback are risk-laden alternatives.

The money is good for a part-time job but don’t be under any illusions about the scale of this task. With a few exceptions, Strachan largely selected the correct players, and I don’t buy the fact that we would suddenly be transformed by adding the likes of Ross McCormack, Jordan Rhodes, Charlie Adam, Matt Phillips and Tom Cairney.

The SFA’s network of performance schools is great, but if the association really wants to stop getting it in the neck, they need to take a more holistic view to the development of young Scottish players. 

Safe pair of hands, says Chris Jack

THE Scottish FA hired a London-based recruitment agency to lead their search for the next Performance Director but the likes of Malky Mackay and John Collins are hardly out-of-the-blue suggestions. 

While that process is crucial for the future of our game, it is the deal for Strachan’s successor that is the headline appointment.

If the Hampden board want a Scottish boss then Alex McLeish is the best option available and would be safe pair of hands. 

But the net should also be cast wider and many fans would favour a bold appointment from outside these shores.

The Berti Vogts experiment should not put Scotland off going down the foreign route again, with Lars Lagerback a name that has already been touted. Scotland need a coach that can organise his side, one that is adept and adaptable tactically and, ideally, has international experience.

The money on offer at Hampden won’t be enough to attract a big name but the job is a chance for a lesser-known boss to enhance his reputation.

Regan and Co. will do the deal but opinions should be sought from across the game in Scotland and further afield. 

It is time to think outside the box. This one has to be right.

Heaven know’s it’s miserable, says Alison McConnell

To paraphrase The Smiths – whose mood might currently be in keeping with that of the nation – another campaign is over before it began. This time around, though, it is safe to wonder if it was ever real in anyone’s heart. 

Before a ball was kicked in Group F there was no genuine sense of optimism, no plausible belief going into the campaign from either players or fans.

There is an entire generation of top-flight players who do not know what it is like to perform at a major international tournament. In order to get there, there is a requirement for change.

It is never in good taste to call for someone’s head as a manager, but there has been a weariness on Gordon Strachan’s part that suggests he privately feels as though going into this round of qualifiers at the helm was the wrong call. It was. Bringing in a new manager is complicated by the landscape. One... there are no obvious candidates and two... it will be the same players available for selection.

Scotland need to cast their net wider and go for someone who has been over the course before and knows how to get the best return from players; a guy of the experience of Lars Lagerback would fit the mould.

One only has to look at how the Republic of Ireland are currently faring with a squad of player similar in ilk to Scotland’s to see what is possible with a strong and organised manager at the forefront.

Read more: David Moyes is open to becoming to next Scotland manager if Gordon Strachan goes

O’neill is worth a punt, says Graeme McGarry

There are clearly major problems with player development in this country, and the SFA need to address that by thinking outside of the box with the appointment of their new performance director. 

Austin MacPhee has been touted by some for the role and he would be an intriguing appointment, but if they are set on bringing in an established ‘name’, then John Collins wouldn’t be the worst shout.

All of this shouldn’t disguise the fact though that even this current squad of players are currently performing as far less than the sum of their parts, with the continued success of Northern Ireland bringing the shortcomings of

Gordon Strachan even more sharply into focus.  Unfortunately, I don’t see any alternative to a change of manager. Personally, I think the SFA should go cap in hand to Lars Lagerback and try to persuade him to take over the national side in the hope that he is over the snub he received from Scotland a few years ago.

Whatever they do, it is time for fresh thinking and a fresh perspective in both of these crucial roles for the good of the Scottish game.

Sort out the youth system, SAYS Matthew Lindsay

Scotland’s inexorable slide down the Fifa world rankings won’t be halted until a youth set-up that is failing to produce enough players of a sufficient standard is radically overhauled. 

Bringing in a new manager won’t make a huge amount of difference to the fortunes of the national team because the raw materials just aren’t there.  

But making the changes which erstwhile performance director Brian McClair recommended, particularly ensuring that our best youngsters are exposed to competitive football at senior level at a younger age, should help to improve the long-term outlook.

We do have talented young players coming through. Oliver Burke, who moved to Leipzig in Germany for £13million this season, is evidence of that. Kieran Tierney, John McGinn and Barrie McKay all have enormous potential as well. 

However, defensively we are poor and it is very hard to see where our centre-backs are coming from. A change of system may help. But Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel using crayons.