Burley future in real doubt

SFA to meet as speculation gathers pace

Last updated: 15th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Burley future in real doubt

Burley: Under pressure

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Sky Sports News understands it is increasingly unlikely George Burley will continue as Scotland manager, with the Scottish Football Association to meet in the next few days to discuss his future in the role.

Burley has been under intense pressure following Scotland's failure to qualify for South Africa 2010, with a series of lacklustre displays in qualification having led to calls for his dismissal.

It was thought he may pay the price for failing to qualify Scotland for the World Cup with his job, but he was handed a reprieve by the SFA after his side finished their qualifying campaign with a couple of improved performances.

However, a miserable display in Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Wales in Cardiff has led to renewed speculation over his future.

His removal from the role as manager has been heavily backed, with some bookmakers having already installed Craig Levein and Walter Smith as joint-favourites to replace him.

Sky Sports News has learnt his fate will be decided by the end of the week as SFA chiefs meet in the next few days to discuss whether his position has become untenable.

Comments (62)

Paul Robinson (Tottenham Hotspur fan) says...

I agree with Paul Campbell that a top quality part-time coach would work. Gus Hiddink managed it with Russia and Chelsea, so why not? No-one is more passionate than Sir Alex Ferguson, and Mike Phelan does a lot of the job at Old Trafford which would allow Alex the time to work with Scotland, maybe with Joe Jordan alongside?

Posted 16:39 16th November 2009

Felix Disouza (Partick Thistle fan) says...

There is no discussion to be had on this one. That was, without doubt, the worst performance i have ever seen from any Scottish side. It's obvious that the players dont want to play for the man, and any suggestion that things were improving at any stage during the last campaign is laughable.The writing was on the wall for this man when he put on Chris Who-elumo instead of Boyd against Norway. An absolutely ridiculous decision. Doesn't matter what you think of Boyd, he would have buried that chance and qualification would have been within our grasp. It's time for him to go, and if Gordon Smith had any guts he would resign with him.

Posted 16:02 16th November 2009

Gordon Hay (Raith Rovers fan) says...

Burley should do the hounerable thing and resign,he has lost the dressing room and the fans , there's no way back ,he was only good for a couple of months at Hearts but useless at southampton , lets give big joe jordan a go

Posted 15:03 16th November 2009

Peter Higgins says...

George Burley must go but the players must shoulder the blame as well. Their performance and attitude on saturday was a disgrace, we know that we are not blessed with any international class players with the exception of Darren Fletcher but you dont need to be a great player to put a bit of effort and take a pride in what you are doing. Garry Caldwell is shouting his mouth of about what he is worth well i think we all saw what he is worth on saturday. The whole team looked clueless, leaderless, shapeless, and hopeless. Burley brought in Paul Hegarty as his assistant a man who has been hunted from every job he has taken before. Its time for change but the problem is who will take the job, any decent manager will not touch it. Time to get rid of the dead wood in the team and also at hampden George Will and Gordon Smith appointed Burley and give him a vote of confidence after we did not qualify from an easier group than wales or northern ireland had so they must look at themselves to.

Posted 14:05 16th November 2009

Carl Palleschi (Celtic fan) says...

George Burley is a good manager but anyone manging Scotland is going to have difficulties getting through to any major competition because we just don't have the quality to do so .Scottish football is slowly fading and that is from the old firm in europe right through to the national team .

Posted 12:42 16th November 2009

Daniel B (Raith Rovers fan) says...

Burley needs to go. His awful decision making in the last third of every game leads to us never finishing strongly and ultimately losing the game. His initial team selection has no continuity and he fails to motivate the team to go out and win. The Scotland team essentially picks itself with Burley depleating the team through personal problems with players. If a manager has such a personality clash with so many players (McCulloch and Boyd) how can he possibly stay as manager? Burley should have done the honest thing after Norway and stepped down. He has succesfully un-done 5 years of good progress after a certain German decided to ruin Scottish football and we are now back to square one. Lets start again with Levein.

Posted 09:03 16th November 2009

Andy Lunn (Aston Villa fan) says...

Burley out now. Bring back Walter Smith and Big 'Eck. Under these two we looked much better and narrowly failed to qualify for the Euro Championship from a group that contained the last World Cup finalists. Under Burley we wouldn't even be good enough to win an egg and spoon race. He was a crap manager at club level and an average player at best. The SFA need to think hard about their own tenure as I don't think they know what they are doing either. Whether or not Walt and Alex come back to International management is their own decision, but Scotland must install a man with a proven record and if it has to be a non Scottish man then I hope we don't have another Berti Vogts scenario. For too long the Scottish national side has been 3rd rate, it is time to bring in someone who can make things happen.

Posted 08:55 16th November 2009

Iain Baird says...

Burley has got to go!! Scottish football has gone back to being a joke under him. We had restored some pride with McLeish and Smith now that is lost. We should have appointed Souness insead of Burley but the SFA messed up as usual. They should appoint Levein in my opinion. Done a good job with limited resourses at Dundee Utd. Btw to all those who think Scotland should play pretty football, why?? We dont have the players, if we work hard and are organised like under Smith, McLeish and Brown especially we will have more sucess Iain

Posted 08:04 16th November 2009

Paul Campbell (Celtic fan) says...

Surely it's now time to ask if an international managers job should be a full time position. What top scottish coach would be attracted to a role that gives the maximum of two games back to back and then months without contact with the players. During this period the manger is reduced to cheesy photo oppurtunities organised by the SFA to convince us all there's hard work going on behind the scenes. We could invite the better scottish mangers to take charge of games on a rotational basis. or if its a double-header he would be in charge for both games. I think we need something radical to avoid another shambles like this happening again.

Posted 07:49 16th November 2009

Seb Frank (Tottenham Hotspur fan) says...

The problem for Scotland is that they dont really believe in themselves anymore. It will be absolutely ridiculous to get rid of George Burley only for someone else to take charge of the same set of players. The team has to believe that they can get to a major tournament ie compete against the best in the world. I agree Burley has to go, because he hasnt coached the team properly but its up to the team to perform he cant perform for the players when they are on the pitch but he has to take responsibility when it comes to his tactics and I believe he has got it all wrong there. Scotland are only going down hill because they do not believe in themselves if you believe miracles come true thats the way it is in football I am afraid. And yes Wales outgunned Scotland in every department and therefore thrashed Scotland 3-0 but it could have been worse for the Scots. And I have to admit Wales are actually a better side then Scotland unfor always have been always will be. Scotland for me right now lack creativity guile, determination thirst to go at teams and believe they can win games. If they dont have that belief then of course they will always lose.

Posted 03:24 16th November 2009

Jamie Boy (Celtic fan) says...

Gordon Strachan is the man. REAL celtic fans will tell you that. others were idiots ( he wasnt celtic minded, didn't do this... didnt do that... BS)

Posted 01:49 16th November 2009

Graham Taylor (Rangers fan) says...

Well it's about time. George of the Bungle is about to get his jotters and, for the SFA, there is no hiding place. Ever since Big Eck skipped the return flight from the World Cup draw in South Africa to pursue a career in the Premier League the decline has been rapid, and Scotland are in freefall. Burley's reign has lurched from one disaster to another, and the SFA are just as culpable. The decision to play in the afternoon heat of Skopje was forced upon Burley so he could not take the fault for that. But what he could take the blame for was flying out the day before the game, giving the players no chance to climatise to the heat, and then sending his players out full pelt in the searing heat to win the game in the 1st half. A foolish decision. The Kris Boyd fiasco was avoidable but shows his lack of man management. Post-Norway match he said Boyd hadn't proved himself at club level(point noted), but in throwing on Iwelumo and Fletcher ahead of him he put on two players who were completely unproven at International level. He also said he can only pick players who were playing week-in week-out. Take Craig Gordon and Alan Hutton in the Iceland home match and Stephen McManus in the Holland match, all three hadn't played in the previous four months. Less said about Boozegate the better, but Burley's handling of it was shocking. First Ferguson and McGregor were out, then they were in, then they were out, then they were on the bench. If he was a stronger man he would have put them home on the Sunday night and anyone else in the squad who dared to challenge his decision should have received the same punishment. That would've sent a real statement out. Oslo?.... Brief hope against Macedonia and Holland but the players didn't do it for Burley, they did it for themselves and the Tartan Army. Japan was to be expected given the call offs but why were hardly any of those players included to face the Welsh? Which was the end.

Posted 01:47 16th November 2009

Harry Mccormack (Dumbarton fan) says...

I don't think sacking George Burley is the answer although it looks likely he will walk away anyway. The man has been under a media witch hunt since he got the job because Graeme Souness was apparently the favourite to succeed Alex McLeish. The WC2010 was pretty poor overall but there were signs of improvement in the last couple of games and even in the Japan friendly a very depleted Scotland side gave them a game (although more defensive than attacking). The result in Wales was poor but at the end of the day it was only a friendly and something that can be rectified. Give Burley a chance and things will improve.

Posted 00:31 16th November 2009

Div Lino says...

The people that say on here that we have poor players don't know what they're talking about. I feel very sorry for George Burley , he had the courage to throw his name in the ring for the job but never should have been selected. Someone said here that the SFA have shown utter disregard for his career with the way he has been treated and I completely agree. Had they fixed their own error by letting go after failure to qualify he may have just been able to move on relatively unscathed. Fixture mis-management played a huge part in our demise this time round but Burley's clearly not good enough. He alienated too many players , not cut out for the nuances of International management and most intelligent football fans saw it from day 1. Anyway , lets hope that he is let go ASAP and we can move on (would push for Gordon Smith and Peat to be sacked too but we all know that will never happen) So - back to the players - I believe we have a good pool of players , contrary to what i'm reading on here. Under Walter Smith we were actually beginning to play the kind of game that we could impose on teams and when you can do that , you are capable of beating anyone on a given day (as results proved under Smith and MacLeish) Burley was just not capable of doing this at International level - not great shame in that , its an art - and unless we are prepared to let this generation of players flush down the tubes in the way only Scotland can let it, we need to be prepared to pay properly for the service. Just because Vogts didn't work , doesn't mean we should be scared of looking towards an International specialist. Look what Ireland achieved this time round with a frankly more limited squad than ours. Ok we all know we cant afford Hiddink , but there are guys out there that are every bit as capable and much cheaper who would look at our pool of players and feel that they could do something special with them. I honestly believe that.

Posted 00:24 16th November 2009

Stephen Clark ( celtic fan ) says...

Burley is simply out of his depth as a National Team manager, probably giving the job on how his Hearts team played until he was giving the boot from Tynecastle a few years ago.. Time to invest in our youth players who at U'21 level don't seem to be giving a chance to step up. As a Celtic fan the is only 1 man capable of getting the best from these players and won't take any sh1t from any slackers, please step forward Mr. Souness and i would give Charlie Nicholas the job as his assistant as everytime i here him speak about Scottish football in general or the state of the way the National Team has played he has nailed it on the head -plus he's another one who wouldn't take sh1t from these players who think they're the bees-knees. Plus i think Souness & Nicholas would tell the SFA how it is cause clearly for the last 2 years they've been in their own wee world as every Scotland fan knew Burley wasn't the man for the job.

Posted 23:43 15th November 2009

William Livie says...

Graeme Souness, your country needs you!!

Posted 23:36 15th November 2009

Paul Page (Manchester United fan) says...

Burley's job was to qualify for South Africa, he failed. If your job is to stay in the EPL or SPL and you fail you lose your job. So why is Burley still employed.....

Posted 23:24 15th November 2009

Tony Bowie (Rangers fan) says...

Burley has to go!! he has done nothing to change the team like he said he would. its just getting bad to worse, he hasn't got the best record at all, Berti done better than him and that is saying something!! its time for change now!!

Posted 23:21 15th November 2009

Alistair Linden says...

I thought Burley might have been a good choice after his performance with Hearts, how wrong I was. We are a country of limited resources and very few players of true class. In a matter of 2 years Burley has reduced a team that beat France twice and pushed Italy all the way to the debacle of Saturday. Boyd is a handful but 1 goal every 2 games cannot be sniffed at. Alan McGregor is clearly the 2nd best keeper Scotland has and these are 2 players Burley has lost. On Saturday Fletcher was playing balls that the rest of the midfield were not in tune with because of ablility and experience. Riordan should have been on from the start and Caldwell and McManus are way past their sell buy dates. Hoofing the ball down the park to wee forwards was desperate. Recalling Kevin Kyle is beyond me as he was discarded by Rochdale as inadequate years ago. Burley has clearly lost the confidence of the players who will still turn out for him. Those that will turn out are not adequate and he is plumbing the depths of the leagues to find players. Tactically inept and drowning in his own sanguine comments. Do the decent thing George, fall on your sword.

Posted 23:12 15th November 2009

Lui Pioli (Rangers fan) says...

This man must go !! He's had much the same players that Walter and Big Eck to choose from . I seen the writing on the wall way back against Macedonia . Shame though as he seems a decent man .

Posted 23:03 15th November 2009

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