There are a few myths that many hold to be true about the football press in Scotland. One of these is that Jim Traynor, this week’s social media star, is Scottish football’s equivalent to the all-seeing Eye of Sauron.

From his lofty perch as PR guru at Level 5, Traynor apparently directs all before him, stretching his tentacles and influence in Rupert Murdoch-esque fashion across Scotland’s back pages.

There are others of course and you may hold a few prejudices against the men and women of the fourth estate yourself. You may even view journalists with disdain.

That’s fine, it’s a free country and this isn’t meant as a defence of the profession. But in Gordon Strachan’s case, his apparent distaste and combative attitude towards journalists isn’t so easily dismissed.

That’s because as Scotland manager, he has a duty to communicate with supporters of the national side and he has to be held to account when things go as horribly wrong as they have this past week.

And it all seems to stem from another myth about the press in this country that perhaps only one man truly holds, that we all have it in for Gordon Strachan.

In his interview with the BBC last week, Strachan described his relationship with the press as “a battle”. But it didn’t have to be this way, and it still doesn’t.

I have yet to hear of any journalist being particularly offended by Strachan’s responses to questions, even though they can often be snarky, sarcastic and downright rude. Strachan's answers that is, not the journalists.

Much like anyone who cares about Scotland in these last few days though, journalists do take umbrage to being told that the grass is blue or the sky is green. And, like fans, the press will be critical when it is warranted.

Some of Strachan’s comments after the poor results against Lithuania and Slovakia this week would have made Comical Ali blush. Or maybe even Charles Green.

What the Scotland boss doesn’t seem to realise, is that what he probably sees as a clever way to deal with manipulative journalists fishing for a headline, comes across as an insult to supporters’ intelligence.

I felt a little for Chris Martin in the immediate aftermath of the Lithuania game. I fully understand the need for managers to publicly protect their players, but by hailing his performance as “outstanding”, Strachan actually took away from what was a decent enough showing from the big striker.

It’s not his fault he was picked, and in the circumstances Martin did ok, but the superlatives used by his manager were clearly over the top, disingenuous, and led to widespread derision of both Strachan and the player. Particularly when he was dropped for the Slovakia match three days later.

Scotland assistant manager Mark McGhee made an impassioned defence of his friend during the week, saying that his sole motivation for doing the Scotland job is for the fans, who he feels are owed their chance of following their side to a major championships after almost two decades on the outside looking in.

Surely then, they are also owed honesty from the manager when he falls short? If McGhee’s words are to ring true, then Strachan must start treating those fans as adults and explain his decisions, rather than swatting away questions over tactics on the grounds that ‘non-football’ people couldn’t possibly understand his answers.

Unless he changes tact, Strachan stands accused of holding the supporters he professes to care so much about in contempt. And when you consider his dismissal of Jonathan Sutherland’s attempt to direct questions to him from members of the public last week, as well as his famous put-down about a certain type of supporter who drinks Kestrel, wears a tracksuit and has a devil dug, then the evidence supports a view that he thinks very little of fans and their opinions rather than McGhee’s assertion that he holds them above all else.

In the lead-up to the game at Wembley next month, it would be nice if the Scotland manager, the press and the fans could all be involved in a grown-up conversation about the national side and the direction of the game in this country.

That is down to Gordon Strachan though. Otherwise, a poor result against England will see the clamour for him to depart his position gain momentum, dare I say it, with some velocity.