Gordon Smith: I asked Sir Alex Ferguson to be the Scotland manager - but he was too busy

Alex McLeish, yeah, him, left the post after the team didn’t make the 2008 European Championships despite beating France twice, once under the management of Walter Smith, Ukraine and Lithuania.

A controversial defeat to Italy at Hampden - how did that referee give the Italians a free-kick when Alan Hutton was fouled - meant McLeish wanted out and moved south to Birmingham City in the Autumn of2007.

This left Smith, still getting a feel of his new position, having to lead the search for a new manager.

So, he knows what Ian Maxwell, who now sits in his former office, will face when he has to find our next would-be saviour. Despite nothing being said publicly yesterday by the chief executive and others, McLeish’s days are numbered.

Smith, 12 years ago, got a knock back from the first guy he asked. The man was in a job at the time. He isn’t any more. Just putting it out there.

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“When big Alex left in 2007, and I had been chief executive for a few months, I phoned Sir Alex Ferguson,” said Smith. “I gave him some of the names which had been put forward and asked what he thought, what he’d heard about certain candidates.

“I actually asked Sir Alex if he would be interested in taking the job even on a part-time basis. I felt I had to ask the question. Just in case. He told me he was too busy with Manchester United.

“I had a pretty big list of candidates split between Scots and non-Scots. I took into account people who were in a job, those who were free so to speak. I spoke to a number of people and he was the first.

“Sir Alex was really helpful but he wasn’t for being the manager. A shame.”

The SFA instead went for George Burley - that’s some difference - and while the one-time Ipswich and Hearts manager was a failure, his appointment at the time made a bit of sense.

Barry Ferguson, the Scotland captain, was canvassed for his opinion, as were the Hearts players who worked with Burley; Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley. All gave their old boss a glowing report.

“Every managerial appointment at club level is a risk and the same goes for international level,” said Smith

“You can never tell if something is going to be successful. You can’t tell if a manager is going to get his best out of the players.

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“A manager and a group of players is like a chemical reaction. Some managers do better with a certain group than another guy, and that doesn’t necessarily says anything about their own natural ability. Rather, it’s about players responding to a particular person and that for whatever reason doesn’t always happen.

“I think, with big Alex, there was a negativity about him coming back to the job in the first place, and I do feel sorry for him. He did get us into the play-off position and you only have to look to the fact that one of the teams we knocked out was Israel who I watched the other night beating Austria 4-2. They were excellent.

“It’s easy to say it’s all negative. You have to admit that Scotland didn’t play well on the night, in both games, but it’s not just down to the manager the fact they got beat so comfortably in Kazakhstan.”

This is true but the buck always stops with the man who picks the team. And then if there is any blame left over, and there always is, it gets thrown towards the men in blazers which have ran the Scottish Football Association since 1873.

Smith had the top blazer for three years and knows how Maxwell will be feeling.

“It’s hard to be in the job I had when Scotland aren’t going well,” admitted the former Director of Football at Rangers. “It hurts. You take it personally.

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“It’s not easy because we are fans as well. You are not just in the background, it’s not a case of picking a manager, sitting back and letting it all happen. You are actually really involved, are concerned with results and performances, because we want Scotland to get back to where we were in years gone by, which is being in major tournament.”

“When George (Burley) left and then we got in Craig Levein, it wasn’t a good time. It’s all about results. Forger about the team which gets picked because managers will always go with their own thoughts and if they win then all is forgiven.

“We need to get back to getting the country where it was. I do believe we have better players than perhaps the supporters believe. Look, we had a shocking result but these things do happen. Scotland have been known for messing up in games we should win and then beating teams ranked far higher than us.”

Smith doesn’t have to make the decision now, which he is glad about, but were he still at the SFA then he would lean towards giving McLeish a few more games to find a result.

His reckoning is that most supporters didn’t give the much of a chance to finish first or second in a group containing Belgium and Russia.

READ MORE: Gordon Smith insists SFA chief Ian Maxwell must be the only man to decide on new Scotland manager

And there is the play-off, which Scotland are in.

Smith said: “Alex did very well, despite all the criticism, to get us into the play-off for the European Championship and then one bad defeat and it all turned around and everything about him was bad – and he would have known that was coming.

“I do think you have to give the guy more games to see if he can turn it around. Most people might think that we weren’t going to qualify out of this group anyway, so allow him to build a team for the play-off matches.

“You have to do your due diligence before appointing any manger. You need to look into their track record, what they had done in the past, their capabilities, and I don’t care what anyone says about Alex McLeish, he managed at the highest level.

“What I would say is that everyone is critical of the SFA, no matter what. Even when good things happen people find a fault with it.”