Gordon Smith: Dear Gordon Strachan… your results haven’t been good enough and it’s time to go

I HAVE been very supportive of the job you have done with the national team.

And on Thursday night you literally had my backing I was at Hampden cheering Scotland on against Poland.

It was an enjoyable experience, too.

I felt you picked the right team and that, before the loss of a bad late goal, we had produced a pleasing performance.

But with the dust now settled, we must analyse what has taken place.

The bottom line is that a squad, acknowledged as talented a bunch of players as we have had for some time, has failed.

Failed in a new, expanded set-up that affords more countries every chance to qualify for the Euro Finals.

Two from each group automatically qualifying, with a third getting the safety net of a play-off, aren’t bad odds. Not at all.

Yet we have finished fourth.

And for all the misfortune, that’s a fact which can’t be avoided or ignored.

Let’s put it into context.

Berti Vogts, George Burley and Craig Levein three managers who between them received tremendous criticism all finished higher in their respective campaigns than you have.

Pretty much every time a club sacks its manager, the phrase: ‘Football is a results-driven business’, is trotted out as justification for the change.

Frankly, your results as Scotland manager have not been good enough. So it’s time to move over and give someone else a chance.

The SFA have made it clear they want you to stay on and lead our bid to reach the World Cup Finals in 2018.

That means you are the man who will decide your own future.

Scotland drew 2-2 with Poland (SNS Group / Rob Casey)

I have heard people querying whether you will walk away once tonight’s Gibraltar game is out of the way.

For me, that misrepresents your situation. As I understand it, technically your contract expires on the return from Faro.

You have been employed to do a job and will have completed the task.

But, equally, you have failed in steering us to next summer’s Euro Finals

A new deal may be yours for the signing, and the onus is on SFA Chief Executive Stewart Regan to persuade you that putting pen to paper is something you want to be doing.

You should exercise your right to say: ‘No, I have done my bit. Now it is time to let someone else have a go at it’.

If you were to do so, I don’t think anyone could complain.

There is no suggestion you haven’t given your all in your bid to give this group of players the experience you enjoyed of wearing the Dark Blue jersey in a tournament Final.

You have always taken pride in your achievements and you have fostered a confident and positive mood in the group.

That won’t suddenly disappear if you decide to move on.

Players like Darren Fletcher, James Morrison and Scott Brown will make sure of it.

I am also convinced you would enjoy what lies ahead on a personal level if you did call it a day.

You have spoken often of your grandchildren and how it would be no problem to fill your days.

Your television work would also ensure you continued to have a connection with the game.

I believe it would be the right thing to do in the wake of your failure to get to France.

If, however, you decide to stay on, I will support both you and your decision moving forward.

Do you agree with Gordon Smith? Tell us on Facebook or Twitter.Dear Gordon, You CAN get that monkey off our back: Ron Scott’s view Ron Scott : Our voice of experience

WE go back a long way, to when you turned pro with Dundee more than 40 years ago.

I like to think we’ve remained close yet I still find it impossible to second guess you. You’ve always been your own man, even when we first met and you were still a teenager.

So what you will decide to do now Scotland won’t be in France next summer is beyond me.

But as a friend and Scotland fan I would ask you to continue the job you started nearly three years ago.

A lot of people have been calling for your head since Thursday night, some of it followed up in newspaper headlines.

I know you’ve never been particularly popular with my fellow press colleagues, largely because you rarely confide in them.

Before accepting the Scotland job, you told me you would never return to club football.

I believed you then, and I believe you now. So why give up on the game completely when you’re only 58?

Your old boss Fergie kept going until he was 71 although I know you’d never look to him as an example, or seek his advice.

I well remember the time you infuriated him at Aberdeen by signing a pre-contract with Cologne when freedom of contract rules were rather vague.

He saw to it that didn’t happen, and your eventual move to Manchester United was good for you and the Dons’ bank balance.

But I know you won’t be picking up the phone to Fergie for a steer on which way you should turn now.

You once told me the only person you would ever turn to for advice was Howard Wilkinson, your old manager at Leeds United, where you played until you were 38 after instigating your own health regime which involved eating a lot of bananas!

Since moving into management, you’ve had your ups and downs

You couldn’t continually keep Coventry City punching above their weight, and I don’t have to remind you that led to you being sacked in 2001, the only time you’ve experienced that.

Future spells in charge of Southampton, Celtic and Middlesbrough saw you leave when you felt it was right.

Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said you were their best manager since Jock Stein but still you resigned.

And when you struggled to revive Middlesbrough, you ripped up your contract, thus avoiding Boro having to pay you off.

I’m sure you’d do the same with your SFA deal if you decide to walk away after today’s game against Gibraltar.

Don’t do that.

The SFA want to keep you, and I’ve seen enough in the past couple of years to believe you remain the best man around to get the monkey of not qualifying for a major finals since 1998 off our backs.

These are difficult times for you, but nothing you can’t handle.

After all, you learned quickly how to survive a Dens Park dressing-room which contained street-wise pros such as Tommy Gemmell, George Stewart, Alan Gordon, Jimmy Wilson, Gordon Wallace and Jocky Scott to go on and captain Dundee aged just 19.

Not long after that you spent part of your honeymoon with Lesley at Wembley in 1977 when we beat England.

The World Cup qualifiers take us back there. How can you turn your back on that?

Stick with it, Gordon. You’re still the best man for the job.