Goodbye and good riddance

If George Burley has any hope of surviving and prospering as Scotland manager, Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor must never be allowed near a squad again.

Nobody, from the Scottish Football Association hierarchy down to the tracksuited support staff, has been without blame in this sorry, and entirely avoidable, episode.

Burley's biggest and costliest mistake would be to ignore a festering problem inside a Machiavellian dressing-room. Failure to weed out the disruptive influences - it is not coincidental that the majority of them are affiliated to Rangers - will leave Burley a lame duck manager; he will be ridden roughshod over, lose the respect of those he has nurtured and leave Gordon Smith and George Peat with a decision that will have implications for their own positions.

The brutal reality is that, the further up the footballing food chain you go, the less significant international football has become for a spoiled, brattish generation.

Judging by the childish, Harry Enfield-style V-signs offered by both players during Wednesday evening's 2-1 win against Iceland, neither McGregor nor Ferguson are significantly motivated by the pride of representing their country to be considered worthy of inclusion ever again.

In fact, their deeds suggest that they considered their punishment to be something of a joke.

In the case of the captain, his lack of responsibility or contrition is not only appalling, but serves as evidence of Paul Le Guen's claim of two years ago that he was "the problem within"; a player "who caused adversity" and "undermined" the Frenchman during his ill-fated reign as Rangers manager.

If Burley does not play this one right, he will become the latest manager to suffer from what many in the corridors of Hampden and Murray Park have described as a cancerous influence. Ferguson drove out Le Guen and, from the outside looking in, it appears he is at it again.

Having been booed by his country's fans, there is a growing suspicion that Ferguson will take pre-emptive action and announce his retirement from the national team to concentrate on his Rangers career, which is also rumoured to be entering its final act.

Burley's decision to drop both Rangers players for being the last men standing in a through-the-night drinking session was met with approval from the Scotland support who have, frankly, decided that the players from Ibrox - their captain's acolytes - are divisive and disruptive influences. It might explain why, forall the misguided air of superiority that wafts around Rangers' squad, there has been a direshortage of league wins of late.

Somewhere, probably in a Parisiancafe, Le Guen will have enjoyed a wry smile as news of Ferguson's latest act is chronicled in a wing column of L'Equipe.

His attempts to offload the club captain proved the tipping point for Sir David Murray. Le Guen did not believe that his long-term strategy for revitalising Rangers would have been made possible with Ferguson retaining such a strong hold over others in the dressing room and openly mocked the less-talented players in his midst.

Burley has faced a similar problem, one that in part explains - if not excuses - the decision to name Ferguson and McGregor as substitutes. Had they been dispatched home immediately, Burley believed he risked mutiny or, at best, a detrimental psychological effect on those who had pleaded for the pair to be spared, among them - surprisingly - Stephen McManus and Darren Fletcher.

It is this hold Ferguson has over his team-mates that is at the root of Burley's quandary. It will also dictate the timing of any decision. Lee McCulloch and Kris Boyd having turned their backs on Scotland, there are fears that any decision to follow suit by Ferguson and McGregor could initiate a mass exodus from which Burley would not survive.

It is almost certain that Ferguson, if he does not announce his retirement, will be omitted from the squad for Norway on football grounds but that could throw up problems if he was to inspire Rangers to the title in the meantime.

If Burley takes swift, decisive action, he will leave himself open to accusations of hypocrisy, as five others players - Scott Brown, Alan Hutton, Steven Whittaker, Steven Fletcher and Gary Teale - were involved in the drinking session, some leaving only minutes before Steven Pressley was summoned by hotel staff to intervene.

Burley's problem is exacerbated by the fact that he has been afforded little protection by the Scottish FA.

In this regard, Smith, the chief executive, should choose his words more carefully in future after a needless and contradictory series of flash interviews that neither fully supported the manager, nor sufficiently condemned the perpetrators of the breach of discipline. The charade of yesterday's review of the incident, when Burley's explanation had already been heard, suggests that the SFA are more likely to be compiling a case against the manager than pledging their unwavering support.

It would have been more prudent for him to say nothing at all than entangling himself in loose language. Similarly, Peat, the president, had no business discussing the matter with the coach before kick-off on Wednesday night.

Burley is too diplomatic for his own good. By confirming, in clipped and almost involuntary noises, that Ferguson remains his captain in the immediate aftermath, the manager's attempt to keep a baying media mob under control, while issuing an unnecessary and unintentional olive branch, has served only to weaken his position of strength. Itwas also a statement founded on utter nonsense.

Victory against Iceland has empowered Burley as never before, but he has to proceed carefully and convincingly. For one, he must not lose his allies in the dressing room. Already, David Marshall has been more severely punished for McGregor's nocturnal antics than the Rangers goalkeeper has - the Norwich man would have taken his place on the bench.

The responsibility for not issuing a curfew after the flight back from Amsterdam is ultimately Burley's, whether he delegated such responsibilities or not. He is on uncertain ground for condemning the twilight boozing session when he has been regularly lampooned for his fondness of a drink. It is in these margins that the SFA hierarchy become twitchy.

It is becoming a messy affair andit is no exaggeration to suggest that it is not Burley, Peat or Smith who has the most important role within the SFA these days but Rob Shorthouse, the head of communications. He left behind therabble of politics to play his part in helping Glasgow win the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games before joining the SFA, only to discover an even more bitchy, spiteful and potentially troublesome set of scoundrels than at Holyrood. He has worked admirably to minimise the waffle fromHampden but has his work cutout.

Burley, as impressive a coach as he is, is becoming an embarrassment and liability in media conferences. His fear and contempt for his questioners has led to aseries of unfathomable and at times gaffe-strewn public performances that do him or his employers no favours.

Smith should also have been deterred from his media rounds onWednesday night before the game and Peat's laudable attempt torevitalise the game is compromised by lobbing hand grenades in public at those down the corridor whose communication is vital to any change.

If Ferguson is allowed back underany circumstances, Burley will be a dead man walking. Itwill invite anarchy and fatally undermine his authority. Burley needs all the help he can get. He is quickly realising, though, that the role of Scotland manager can be the loneliest of all.

Taken from the Herald