Barry Ferguson has hit out at the Scottish Football Association over their treatment of Alex McLeish, in the Daily Record.
It emerged via the SFA website on Thursday afternoon that the 60-year-old’s second stint as Scotland manager was over.
The decision comes in the wake of an embarrassing 3-0 defeat in Kazakhstan and an unconvincing 2-0 victory over San Marino, last month.
However, it’s not the decision itself Ferguson has taken issue with. It’s the timing.
“I just don’t understand why it took so long for things to come to a head,” wrote Ferguson in
the Record. “You know deep down what you are feeling and what you are doing to do at certain stages and it was quite obvious a decision had been made in the wake of the Kazakhstan and San Marino double-header.”
“But if the way they went about appointing him wasn’t brilliant, this is through the roof. Have a bit of class about yourselves.
“You are dealing with a guy who won 77 caps for his country. He was manager once before and led the team to one of the greatest results in our history when he took us to Paris and defeated France 1-0 in their own backyard when they were world champions.
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“If the story is right then why do you not just go ahead and be big enough to tell Alex straight away rather than have everyone talking about him for three weeks or more afterwards. The fact they didn’t comes across as weak and disrespectful. In fact, it’s not weak and disrespectful. It’s sad and disgusting.”
Verdict
Ferguson certainly doesn’t hold back in his criticism here. He played under McLeish for Scotland, Rangers and Birmingham City, and he clearly feels for his former manager.
He has a point, too. Scotland’s latest international fixtures were almost a month ago and that same week there was talk that McLeish would be sacked.
To take such a long time to finalise the decision was unnecessary and disrespectful to someone who has done a lot not just for Rangers, but for Scotland too.
