GORDON STRACHAN was this week never going to be found standing at the side of a pitch with a microphone in his hand.

He must have been approached by at least one television company to be an analyst at any of the play-off matches, perhaps even the one involving the Republic of Ireland.

In football terms, that's like going to the wedding of a girl who dumped you for the guy who took your job and place in the five-aside team. Painful doesn't come close to describing it.

“That was never going to happen, trust me," Strachan sternly stated, when asked whether he was ever going to be on broadcast duty.

So instead the Scotland manager over the next few days will pull on his boots, get on the training ground and closely study the current Under-21 squad, some of whom he has never even seen kick a ball either live or on television.

"I have always wanted to work with the U21s, but I never had the chance because they were always working at the same time us," said Strachan. "It’s impossible to do two. So I thought, ‘let’s have a bit of that.’"

But this is not merely an exercise in staying away from the play-offs. Instead he is keen to get to know the players outside of his senior squad.

These boys should be acutely aware that every move will be scrutinised by Strachan. He is a canny man and will soon know who are the ones committed and those whose attitude is going to hold them back.

"It’s a case of watching the players and how they get on with each other," said the Scotland manager as he held court at Mar Hall on the outskirts of Glasgow. "How hard do they want to work? What sort of determination do they want to show? Are they willing to put themselves out for the team, for the group?

"Are they going to decide now that ‘if I want to be a top player I have to get my mindset around playing 55 games a season? Not 30. Not 35. But to that level we require.

"Can they deal with that and not think stiffness is some sort of disease? Is there mental strength to go and play two games, whether it’s Kazakhstan and coming back to play someone else here? Can they deal with that? We will see who can deal with that.

“I want to get to know the younger players so that when they do come into our squad, and hopefully a lot of them will do that, then they know my terminology, my sense of humour, and I get to know them and what buttons to push. It took me about a year to get to know which buttons you can or can’t push with the players in the full squad.”

If Scotland are to move forward, and even standing still is not an option, Strachan needs to see a few come through from Ricky Sabragia's squad, who face Ukraine at St Mirren Park in a European Championship qualifier, over the next 18 months.

“There’s some of them I’ve not seen live," said Strachan. "I’m disappointed Ryan Christie is not here because I think he’s a good mover with the ball.

“But someone asked me, is this a progression from the 21s to the top team? Not it’s not really because it’s more important for these boys to be starting every week for their own first team.

“There’s no point going back to your club and playing U21 football or going out on loan to some club in the second division. But by working with them it allows me to see how they deal with international football and how they deal with the responsibilities and demands of international football.

“The U21s doesn’t really give you the same pressure of playing for the national side. You get more stress and pressure playing first team football at club level in big games.”

Now this is the crux of the matter. Too many of our younger would-be internationalists are outside of the Premiership or Premier League, and that's those who get a game at all, while many are at or loaned out to what would be classed as smaller clubs.

It was a bit different to Strachan's day when top class Scottish players found themselves on the fringes of the national team, whereas today they would be on 100 caps.

“Thirty years ago this was the back four of a non Old Firm club: Gough, Heggarty, Narey and Malpas. Anybody would die for that back four in the Scottish league right now," said Strachan. "I hated playing against them. Me and my team hated playing against them.

“So I’ll leave you with that one. That was the standard 30 years ago. And that was a team outside of the Old Firm.

"I once said to my coaching staff, I said to Tam Burns ‘When did you make your debut at Celtic?’ he said 17. Garry Pendrey was 16 at Birmingham, Jim Blyth was 16 at Preston, I was 16 at Dundee, so you can’t wait too long for them."

Strachan was full of beans, which was good to see and hear. The disappointment hasn't gone away, however, he was his old self. Funny, entertaining and, as always, was worth listening to.

Not only does he want to change Scottish football from top to bottom, more on that next month, but he has started plotting for World Cup qualification.

It would have been easy for him to take this week off after the decision was made not to take on a friendly game, but he is back to the grind stone and out in the rain with a smile on his face.

Even those of us who felt it might be better if a change had been made in terms of the national side's manager, an hour or so with the man himself made you feel it was all going to be alright.