“LET him who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
If large swathes of social media last week are to be believed, then we are indeed living in a Utopian society. A dream world where, in fact, nobody makes any mistakes or errors of judgment. Ever.
Which means no stones have been thrown in recent days.
The whiter-than-white mob have been out in full force. You know the ones who have never sent any dodgy text messages to their mates or what could be called questionable banter in the boozer.
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I am, of course, talking about the furore over Malky Mackay having the audacity to manage Scotland in a friendly.
And for him to be considered for the post full time? It has had people foaming at the mouth in rage. Blasphemy. Some people would rather burn Hampden to the ground than see the day that Malky Mackay in charge.
Now before you metaphorically gather up a large boulder to whack me over the head with, I do not and would never condone what Mackay has said in the past. Nobody in their right mind could.
The racist, sexist and homophobic text messages were abhorrent and out of order. He lost his job at Cardiff and was hounded out of Wigan in jig time shortly afterwards. His reputation as a manager and a man were both totally obliterated. He spent 18 months in the wilderness as a football leper.
No club would touch him with a bargepole until he got back in as the SFA performance director. The appointment did not go down well.
During his time out the game, Mackay went on equality and diversity training with the FA and apologised profusely for what he had done.
He has tried to rehabilitate himself and prove that he has learned from his mistakes. But still some would genuinely never have him working in football again, let alone be the Scotland manager. They just can’t forgive him.
But let’s put Malky’s misdemeanours into a bit of context.
Lee Hughes and Luke McCormick are two names that would might not be very well known north of the border.
Hughes was a striker at West Brom in 2004 when he ploughed his Mercedes into another car while drunk. He caused the death of a father of four. He was sentenced to six years in jail.
Luke McCormick, a goalkeeper at Plymouth Argyle back in 2008, got into his car drunk after a wedding and crashed into another vehicle on the M6, tragically killing two young children and severely injuring their father.
He was sentenced to just over seven years in prison. Both served their time in prison for horrific errors of judgment which had far more devastating consequences than Mackay’s text messages, and were allowed to earn a living and play football again.
Hughes went on to play for Oldham Athletic, Notts County and Port Vale and is now joint manager at Worcester City.
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McCormick is now back playing at Plymouth Argyle, a good level in English football. People who have made far bigger mistakes returned to the game.
In saying all of that, I personally wouldn’t consider Mackay as the next manager of Scotland. Looking at the Holland friendly to my mind, Mackay treated it 100 per cent as an audition for the job. He would take it in an instant.
What was disappointing to me and many other Scotland fans was that he should have blooded guys such as Paul Hanlon, Graeme Shinnie and Liam Cooper whilst also giving Jason Cummings more than a measly four minutes on the pitch.
The result to him was more important than experimenting and taking a look at different players which I don’t agree with in friendlies.
That was evident with his half time substitution of Charlie Mulgrew for Christophe Berra and leaving the exasperating Matt Phillips on for so long in a striker role.
Despite all the positive soundbites coming out of the Scotland camp this week, where I know for a fact the majority of the players were mightily impressed by the way Mackay went about his business on and off the training pitch, I would leave big Malky in his current role as performance director and go for a foreign coach.
Now here’s a thing. Jurgen Klinsmann transformed an ailing and ageing Germany who failed to win a game at Euro 2004, into third place finishers just two years later at the 2006 World Cup.
He also got the USA to the last 16 of the 2014 World Cup getting out of a group of death that contained Germany, a Portugal side that won the Euros two years later and a very strong Ghana.
He speaks perfect English, is available now and knows not only the British game but has vast experience of international football. He is a winner.
In 2004 Klinsmann ripped up that over the hill German squad who had failed miserably and gave opportunities to a whole raft of promising young German players.
Look where they are now. It’s just a thought.
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