VOGTS OF CONFIDENCE

This website has held back from joining the siren voices hailing the appointment of BERTI VOGTS as Scotland coach until the announcement was made official. With the news confirmed that the man who led Germany to victory in Euro 96 will succeed Craig Brown in charge of the Scots as of March 1st, now is the time to throw our twopence worth in.

Firstly, congratulations to the SFA in getting their man. They refused to yield to the press lobby which vociferously demanded an immediate appointment every time there was a dearth of Old Firm stories. Getting it right is more important than rushing the job. Scotland's next fixture is at the end of March against France. There will be no competitive matches until next season when the Euro qualifiers get under way. So there was no need to go for a quick fix.

As for Vogts himself, there have been a few doubts expressed in some quarters. Let us address the critics main points.

1) He's not Scottish. We could answer glibly and say neither are a few of the players. But the top Scottish bosses - Sir Alex Ferguson and George Graham - ruled themselves out of contention. Others, like Gordon Strachan who demanded a home-grown appointment, didn't hang around long enough to be asked. Strachan happily took over at Southampton and is doing a decent job there. Who else was available? Kenny Dalglish? How long before he decided that the only pitch he was interested in involved a putt afterwards? Kenny is close to a modern Don Quixote - Man of La Manga.

Alex Miller and Jim Jefferies are both looking for jobs. In the bad old days this would have been the route the SFA went down. Let's face it. Before Jock Stein the Scotland job was hardly as prestigious as it should have been. It was given to Ian McColl who had never even managed at club level. Other appointments were made from middling domestic clubs like St Johnstone ( Bobby Brown and Willie Ormond) and Clyde (John Prentice). Willie Cunningham even turned the job down to stay with Falkirk!

Ormond apart, none of these managers was a great success. Yet it was either that or the bragadaccio of Tommy Docherty and Ally McLeod. When Stein left Leeds to take up the post, at last the job of Scotland boss was filled by a top class manager. After going down the internal route with Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown, the SFA have again appointed a man in the Stein mould. Nationality is irrelevant. Yes, it would have been preferable to have a Scot in charge but there are no Scots available who have a record that can be compared to that of Vogts.

2) His best days are behind him. Well, we'll see but at 55, Vogts is the same age Stein was when he became Scotland boss. He's a couple of years younger than George Graham and five younger than Fergie. He's younger now than Bobby Robson was when he took England to the World Cup semi-finals in Italy. He's also younger than that great chancer Terry Venables. Sure he's spent the best part of a year in a footballing backwater in Kuwait (if the desert can ever be a backwater). But there isn't a coach in the world that would turn down the sort of money on offer there.

3) He was a failure as boss of Germany. Yeah, the sort of failure we could do with. When Franz Beckenbauer departed in glory after the 1990 World Cup he could see that the long era of German dominance was drawing to a close. Vogts won the European Championship in 1996. Simple as that. Of the four major tournaments played in under his command, the Germans won one, made the Final of another (Euro 92) and the quarter-finals of two World Cups. That record bears comparison with all the big European powers over the same period. How many trophies were won by England, Italy or Spain between 1990-98? Answer: As many as Scotland. Denmark and France were the other European countries to lift the big prizes. Finally, consider this. Vogts led his country to two major finals inside six years. Only Brazil can make the same claim.

To conclude, yes we know we we have a shortage of natural talent but that's been the case for a number of years now. In particular we lack strikers and we aren't the most blessed nation on Earth when it comes to goalkeeping. Vogts , if he was unaware of our problems before, certainly won't be by the end of his first week. But the SFA have made a bold move and it deserves to pay off. Just as long as we don't go looking for miracles we will surely make progress under Vogts. Lastly, here's one to ponder: what sort of incentive must this be for Vogts to return to the Germany that has written him off as Scotland boss in the 2006 World Cup?

He may not be our Sven-Goran Eriksson but he could well be our Jack Charlton.

AYR WE GO