THERE was a time when Scotland could call upon so many great centre-halves that it was almost embarrassing.

The only thing to be red faced about now is the stark reality that the national team’s first choice pairing of Grant Hanley and Russell Martin will be playing in the Championship next season, and after these two there is hardly anyone else. Gordon Greer is 35 and without a club. He seems to be next in line.

When Willie Miller and Alex McLeish were the preferred partnership for Jock Stein, it meant Richard Gough, Alan Hansen, and David Narey were left out. Allow that to sink in for a moment.

Fast forward a few years and Colin Hendry, Tom Boyd and Colin Calderwood didn’t allow much to get past them. All three played at a good level and took us to a European Championship and a World Cup.

Since Holyrood likes to stick its collective noses into Scottish football then perhaps there should be a government taskforce set up to find out where all our defenders have gone.

The greatest on the list above was Miller, a genuine world class footballer, and it saddens the man who was named in his country’s all-time greatest team that nobody wants to be a defender any more.

Miller said: “I actually think Grant Hanley and Russell Martin have done well. I think that’s probably the preferred centre-back pairing we’re talking about just now. But outwith that you are looking around at bit players who have had a few opportunities to come in.

“So I think that’s who Gordon (Strachan) is going to go with, a young player and a slightly more senior player, perhaps who maybe isn’t a centre-back but is actually more of a full-back. I think that tells you all, doesn’t it? I don’t think Gordon can conjure one up. It’s up to the wider game to produce that kind player. And that’s not happening.

“The quality certainly isn’t there in depth to allow the manager to make these difficult decisions. At the same time, he knows the hand he has been dealt. If you are a Scotland manager you are coming in with your eyes open.

“You know the quality of the past isn’t there and you need to put together a strong side. He really has to sprinkle some magic dust over the squad he has got to get some performances out of them going into this World Cup campaign.”

Strachan looks a bit down and even bored right now. The defeats to France and Italy did not find him a player or tell him anything he didn’t know. Scotland are bang average at best, and there will be some who will argue that is actually going too far.

As things stand, this Scotland team have little chance of reaching the World Cup in Russia two years from now. Miller agrees but hopes to be proven wrong.

“I think when England win the European Championships, that will be great for us – because then we can go up against the European Champions in the World Cup section and beat them! We’re pretty good at doing that,” he said.

“It’s a tough group we’re in, if you look at the qualifying set-up. Are we going to top that group? The likelihood is no. Are we good enough to finish second? We’ve got a chance. But we’re going to have to put the best team together and they’ll have to play at their best.

“They’re going to have to play the way they did in the first half of the Euro qualifying campaign. Not the second half, when we didn’t match those performances – and that’s why we didn’t qualify, ultimately, although it was the Georgia result that really set us back.

“It’s a difficult, difficult task. If Gordon can do it, then I think it will make up for the fact that we weren’t at the European Championships.”

A reason so many stood by Strachan after a fourth place finish in the European Championship group was that, simply, there was nobody else. It is hardly a ringing endorsement. His old team-mate at Aberdeen does not believe the national manager will hang about for long if results don’t improve later in the year.

Miller said: “I think it was left to Gordon to make his own mind up, wasn’t it? At the time, I said he would have to be confident that he could qualify for the next major finals because from knowing Gordon, I don’t think he would be a happy manager if he went through two major campaigns without qualifying for either of them.

“But I don’t think there was any doubt he was going to lead us into the qualifying campaign. The job now is to lead us out of that campaign and back to the World Cup.”