Destination respect as Smith picks up pieces

By his own admission, Walter Smith was never going to have his name inscribed in the special hall of fame that the Scottish Football Association have at Hampden Park for what he did as a player.

By his own admission, Walter Smith was never going to have his name inscribed in the special hall of fame that the Scottish Football Association have at Hampden Park for what he did as a player.

Not like Gordon Strachan, with his 50 caps, European medals with Aberdeen and a CV that boasted Manchester United and an English title with Leeds United at the age of 36. Instead, it is the journeyman who has been entrusted with the task of leading Scotland on the long trip back to respectability.

Berti Vogts may have had his World Cup medal, but that did not prevent Scotland's descent to 77th in the Fifa rankings during the German's wretched 33-month tenure before his departure last month. Smith has to pick up the pieces, but a man who spent his playing career grafting for others has no ego to worry about.

Like Arsène Wenger, Jose Mourinho or even his great friend Sir Alex Ferguson, Smith's time as a player was cloaked in anonymity at Dundee United between 1966 and 1974, where he cut his coaching teeth next to Jim McLean. "At Tannadice, the philosophy was simple - we were a team first, individuals second," recalled Smith on Thursday as he offered a hint about how he hopes to resurrect Scotland's reputation.

His own reputation as a manager, one who won 13 trophies in his time at Rangers, is not on the line, insisted Smith. "I don't think anything that happens will diminish anything that I achieved. That is in the past, I prefer to look forward."

The Scottish FA said their decision to opt for the former Rangers and Everton manager - after he had spent two years largely out of the game - ahead of the more radical Strachan was based on Smith's "experience at club level and at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico", according to David Taylor, the chief executive, citing the occasion when Smith and Ferguson dovetailed in a temporary partnership after the death of Jock Stein.

Piquantly, Strachan scored for Scotland at those finals, but neither that track record, nor his popularity with the supporters, was going to be enough to snatch the job. Yet, as Smith cast his eyes down on to the Hampden turf that he briefly trod 30 years ago - in Dundee United's 1974 Scottish Cup final defeat by Celtic - he yearned to turn the clock back for his country.

"A lot's been said about the overall level of Scotland's players that I don't necessarily agree with," said Smith. "We may not have the outstanding individual players that we had a number of years ago, but we've got a lot of good team players, and my biggest task initially is to get them working together. I don't think anyone would accuse the players of lack of effort."

Like Wenger at Strasbourg and Ferguson at Rangers, Smith absorbed all his lessons as "a team player" at Dundee United. "When I realised I wasn't going to be a player of any kind of note, I got into coaching early. You always aspire to work with the best teams, and here it's Rangers or Celtic. Fortunately I managed to work my up to be Rangers manager. When you start out you don't think about the Scotland job, but I do think the job as national team manager is one that most people in football would like to experience."

Smith was asked by the SFA when he was at Everton. His refusal signalled the ill-fated switch to Vogts instead. "Because I was working in the Premiership I was unable to do so." He had no fears - "you should not take any job in football if you are scared" - but there was one misgiving, that his family might suffer if there was any public backlash, as Vogts experienced.

"Putting myself back in the spotlight was something I had to speak with my wife about," he said. "In the last few years at Rangers I had to put up with criticism. It's something you're prepared for but it's not easy for your family to take. I think my wife is just happy to get me out of the house."

After being fired by Everton in March 2002, Smith initially sought a complete break after 35 years in the game. But a brief spell last season as Ferguson's assistant at United recharged his enthusiasm. "I never realised how much I missed it," he said.