Time is a funny thing. They say it can be a great healer and, over a matter of weeks, months and years can offer some perspective.

When it comes to the Scottish national football team, however, that’s not always the case.

We have just come to the end of the road to Russia. For Gordon Strachan, it would also prove to be the end of the line. And rightly so. We have just completed a campaign of failure that really should have been the crowning moment for Strachan.

By the time Russia comes along next summer, the pain, frustration and anguish of Sunday night in Ljubljana may just have about faded, hopefully washed away under a wave of new hope swept in by his successor.

That is where I have a problem. Strachan has only been out of the job a couple of days and the frenzy has begun. A host of names who have been put forward who either have no international experience or a blotted recent record as a grand list of football doyens, all queuing up to be the saviour of our Scottish national side and our sanity.

Get real. Two of the top names linked with the post are Alex McLeish and David Moyes, men with several things in common. Yes, they have done well earlier in their managerial careers at differing levels, yes the two of them would potentially want a crack at being the first guy in over 20 years to take Scotland to a major finals.

But it says it all about the mindset of your average Scotland fan when the main characteristic is that they are both currently out a job. Moyes for all his sterling work at Goodison Park, has been a complete catastrophe since leaving Merseyside to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford on May 9, 2013. His time at Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland have all been riddled with disaster.

McLeish is certainly more appealing, but should we be looking to a man who previously failed as Scotland manager 10 years ago to now be ready to take us to the next level after stints at Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Gent and Zamalek?

As mentioned at the top, time can play tricks on you. On the face of it the 58-year-old had a 70 per cent win rate as Scotland boss. However, he only took charge of 10 games. It is also quickly forgotten he deserted his post just 10 months into a three-year deal to go to Birmingham.

While the passing of time has made the failure under McLeish appear like halcyon days, the lasting legacy of the man who held the post from 2002 to 2004 still hangs around Scotland to this day. The whiff of small-mindedness is almost as pungent as the stench of failure synonymous with the team in Dark Blue from Mount Florida.

Berti Vogts’ reign as Scotland manager is remembered as being possibly the most disastrous period in our national side’s history. Wee Berti took charge of 31 games, with the former Germany coach wining just a quarter of his games. On the face of it, we were well rid.

Yet a closer inspection and a dose of reality tells a different story. The 70-year-old was actually the last man to take Scotland into a play-off (remember them?) when we were eventually clobbered by the Netherlands 6-0 in Amsterdam after James McFadden had the audacity to grab the goal to beat the Dutch at Hampden in a Euro qualifier.

Not only that, but looking at competitive ties, Vogts only lost three of 13 matches, and they came against Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. Hardly diddies. There was also that win over the Oranje and a 1-1 draw with Germany chucked in as well.

I’m not advocating a return for Wee Berti but the idea of bringing in someone who has not been raised on a diet of Irn-Bru and tattie scones has been met with fierce resistance in recent years by not just the SFA but the Tartan Army. There have even been some who Tartan Army members who say they would boycott if an Englishman was put in charge. Utter lunacy.

St George could come back from the dead and play his granny at centre-half if it got us to a major finals, I’m beyond caring now. And that must be the mentality when it comes to picking a new Scotland manager.

It shouldn’t matter where he – or she – comes from, but more about where they go in the future. It is a philosophy adopted by plenty of other nations. Indeed, six of the countries at last year’s European finals were managed by foreigners. Oh how our homegrown values kept us warm through the summer deluge...

We have spent far too long gazing into a misty past with both rose-tinted specs and a murky lens distorted with resentment. For the sake of the prosperity of our nation, what is the most pivotal managerial appointment in our recent history must be made while glancing to the future with our eyes wide open.