Five years since the defeat in Kazakhstan that ended his second spell in charge of Scotland, Alex McLeish reflects on that pivotal evening in Astana.
took in Kazakhstan seems a long, long time ago. Where the national team are now – about to contest their second major tournament since that disastrous evening in Astana – is light years away from where they were back then.
When the Tartan Army were crying out for a new broom, McLeish was perceived to be more of the same. An unwelcome, and arguably unfair, perception that wasn’t aided by the close relationships he enjoyed with SFA president Alan McRae and vice-president Rod Petrie.
Nevertheless, McLeish did manage to cobble together a team that navigated their Nations League group, securing Scotland the play off that would ultimately provide the pathway back to a major tournament for the first time in over two decades. In Fletcher’s stead, Oli McBurnie led the line against the Kazakhs. There were also some of the men who have now become mainstays of the team, like John McGinn and Scott McTominay, but the line-up lacked experience.
If defeat to the Kazakhs was unpalatable, defeat to the Sammarinese was unthinkable. McLeish knew his job was perhaps already lost, but there was no way that match could be lost too.“That’s the way it is. Social media now is horrendous, and I could probably go back and sue a few folk for the things that were being said.“Kazakhstan are obviously not the greatest team in the world, so I can take it on the chin that it was a shocking result.
The credit for that lies with the players themselves, he stresses, and a lot of it with current manager Clarke too. But you sense a hint of regret when speaking to him that the timing of his return to the Scotland dugout coincided not with this era of such talented players in their prime, but very much in their developmental
“We took John McGinn to Mexico and Peru too and it was all about making sure these players got as much experience as possible to see how they handled it and to pave the way for better things. He has turned into a wonderful player as well. “Let me tell you, every time we never got the right result, particularly in Kazakhstan, I was hurting just as much as any other Scotland fan on the planet.
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