I RAISED THE BAR IN SPL .. RIVALS HAD TO KICK ON TO COMPETE

ONE word keeps drifting over to the sidelines on the biting wind slicing across Southampton's training ground.

The voice is unmistakably Scottish. The sentiment is unmistakably George Burley.

"Quality, QUALITY," he pleads as finish after finish present more of a threat to the New Forest trees 20 yards behind the goal than the keeper.

"You spotted our problem then," he laughs later as he sits down to reflect fully for the first time on the astonishing journey he has made in the last six months.

Because Burley hasn't just travelled the length of Britain in trading Hearts for Saints and a frying pan for a fire. He has crossed the border from real to surreal and back again.

His one constant though has been he has standards he'll never lower no matter where he goes.

And despite the madness of his 113-day, 12-game rollercoaster reign at Tynecastle he insists those standards he set were enough to leave a lasting legacy on the game north of the border.

Burley reckons HE raised the bar for Scottish football and forced everyone else to follow suit.

And he also believes deep down he could have kept those standards high enough long enough to bring the title to Edinburgh.

Instead he was sacked by Vladimir Romanov amid a tidal wave of, disbelief after taking the Jambos three points clear at the top of the table in October.

Burley shrugged: "It was sad to leave when everything was going so well but that's sometimes the reality I of football.

"I loved every minute of ' Edinburgh, loved the fans and had a tremendous group of players who were committed to me and the club.

"But sometimes you just have to move on.

"In a short time though I raised the standard of the players and the team and the rest of the SPL had to kick on as well.

"So I know I brought something to the Scottish game. It might not have lasted long but I made a contribution.

"And down here - and all over Europe for that matter - people were speaking about Hearts and what they had done so that can only have been good for Scottish football.

"I raised the bar. And I also wish I could have stayed longer because I felt as if I could have kept that bar high.

"If you ask the players I kept the standards high in training and they responded. And I could just sense things were going to keep going that way."

I ask him: "All the way?" He pauses for a second too long then grins, "We'll never know, will we?

"But people laughed at me when I said we'd challenge the Old Firm - yet we did.

"Yes I was cagey about it. But I was coming from my first sight of the team when we drew 0-0 with St Pats in Dublin.

"That squad wouldn't have finished in the top half, let alone the top two. And you don't expect to be able to change things as quickly as we did.

"But players came in and all of a sudden BANG! - it took off. It would have been nice to have stayed longer because I could have given a lot to Scottish football.

"It wasn't to be though."

Rain forests worth of newsprint were consumed in late October trying to analyse Bur-ley's shock departure as Romanov rampaged through the club, the boardroom and the staff.

And despite a confidentiality agreement protecting either side from exposing the true details of what went on behind closed doors the Saints boss is still keen to set the record straight.

He said: "It's funny but people asked me when I came to Southampton if I was worried about the presence of Sir Clive Woodward as the director of football and whether I really felt my job was safe. But it doesn't bother me.

"The roles we have are clearly stated. All the training, ALL players coming and going, are MY decision which wasn't the case at Hearts.

"When you're leaving a club at the top of the league people are always going to ask questions. But there were many things happening people knew about. Even the press were making fun of players turning up I didn't even know about.

"Everyone involved in Scottish football knew it wasn't right. There were only two players - Ibrahim Tall and Samuel Camazzola - who turned up on my doorstep unannounced.

"All the rest were my players. People talked about Takis Fyssas not being mine but we had actually initially recommended him to Mr Romanov and he then disappeared off the radar. "Suddenly we were told he was signing and everyone assumed he'd been foisted on us. But we were quite happy.

"Once they were there, though, I wasn't under pressure to play them. I picked the team. The choice was mine.

"I picked the side whoever liked it - or didn't like it more to the point!

"I was never told to play X, Y or Z, that's not my style and I wouldn't have done it. "I played the team I thought was right. "It was never easy though. I always spoke with Mr Romanov through an interpreter and that didn't help. Communication was difficult and I'm sure he'd admit that as well.

"It wasn't ideal. We'd do it over the phone then when he came to games we'd have a chat but again through an interpreter because he still doesn't speak any English - that I know of, anyway."

However, Burley refused to b bite the hand that once fed him 'and insisted Jambos punters shouldn't fear the future despite Romanov's turbulent management style.

He said: "He saved that club financially. I They were selling the I stadium, heading for Murrayfield, so credit to him for stopping that and hopefully it works out for him.

"If I was a Hearts fan? They have a great squad already and I see he is already strengthening so I'msure they'll keep progressing.

"He makes the decisions and has picked a very good coach in Graham Rix. That's why Rix got the job, that's where his reputation lies.

"And that's how Mr Romanov sees the way forward, a coach rather than a manager.

"Because he's going to bring a lot of his own players he wants in someone on the training ground who's going to coach them."

The obvious question to Burley, since hindsight is 20/20, is if he knew then what he knows now would he still have taken on the job?

He said: "You make a decision and you stick by it.

"There were negatives, sure, but there were a lot of positives.

"That's life. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do even with the element of the unknown inMr Romanov - the same as I thought it was the right time to come to Southampton.

"I could have waited for a Premiership club to come up, maybe after New Year, who knows?

"But you make a decision. And that's what Graham will have done as well.

"He didn't call me to ask about the Hearts job nor would I have expected him to. You have to form your own opinion.

"You make your decisions in life because if you rely on someone else saying, 'Oooh, don't go there,' you're ducking out of responsibility for yourself.

"So no, I've no regrets about going to Hearts - but there is a part of me that will always wonder 'what if?' over it."

Taken from the Sunday Mail