You Cannot Fault Ambition - But, GARY CALDWELL!!

THE football “industry”, as we all know, is somewhat different from what we know as “industry”. Football has its own rules and protocols, and, if old commentators like me think its basically a mad house, we've got plenty of evidence on our side.

Gary Caldwell - Gie's the job

Today's big news on the football front is that Gary Caldwell fancies being Scotland's next national team manager. Well, good on him, we have to encourage youthful ambition. We remember that old saw about every private soldier having a Field Marshal's baton in his knapsack”. But, realistically – Gary Caldwell; let's examine the evidence.

Gary Robert Caldwell, is 35 years of age – a bit young to be a manager, far less a national team manager, a job usually handed to more-senior managers, with many more years of experience.

He played 430 club games in a 14 year career, plus 55 full internationals for Scotland, having a spell as national captain along the way. He retired through injury, aged 33, in February, 2015, and, within three months, he was promoted from coach to manager at Wigan, his final playing club.

He presided over relegation for Wigan, to be fair, they were already destined for the drop when he took over, but, he did bring them back from English League One to the Championship, at his first attempt, before, a poor run the following season saw him sacked.

He then took over at Chesterfield, another side already consigned to the drop, but, this time he could not lead a revival in a lower league and was sacked after only eight months. So, his club managerial record reads:

managed – 100 : won – 32 : drawn 30 : lost : 38 : wins percentage 32%.

Gary was only 33 when appointed Wigan boss, succeeding Malky Mackay, who was the last Scotland manager, albeit on a caretaker basis, for the friendly against the Netherlands. I am assuming he has his coaching badges, that ought surely to be a given for any potential Scotland manager. He certainly has international playing experience, from those 55 caps, which have earned him a place in the SFA's roster of greats, or whatever it is called these days.

BUT, is this enough of what Bobby Robson used to call: “time on the grass”, to qualify Gary to succeed Wee Gordon Strachan, his former club boss, as Scotland manager?

Can I have a shot now boss?

Even considering Gary for the role, and, as I say, I have nothing against him, is, however, symptomatic of all that's wrong with football today. He was an international player, Scotland's Player of the Year, in the view of the Scottish Football Writers Association, less than a decade ago. But, does that qualify him for national manager?

Back when Scotland had an industrial base, you left school and maybe got an apprenticeship, you worked for five or seven years, under the supervision of a time-serviced craftsman, augmenting your daily toil with classes at night school; perhaps you had one day per week “day-release” at college, then, at the end of your apprenticeship, if your employers were enlightened, you became a tradesman. If the employer wasn't so-enlightened, you had to look elsewhere, but, whether you were a joiner, an electrician, a plumber, or an engineer of some kind – the chances were, you would get a job, or, you might, as so-many did, take your talents abroad, where Scottish-trained tradesmen and engineers were valued, perhaps more than at home.

It used to be, in football, that the older player who wanted to stay in the game would start at the bottom, perhaps doing some coaching of the younger players while still in the first team, or with a lower league team, working his way up.

Look, for instance at Wullie Shankly's path to managerial immortality:

For Wullie Shankly, the road from Glenbuck to managerial God was a long one

When he returned to full-time football with Preston, at the end of World War II, Shankly was already 33. He knew he wanted to remain in football and had become a qualified masseur. He was 35 when he retired to take-up his first managerial role at Carlisle United, in 1949. He spent two years at Carlisle, achieving a 44% winning record.

He then moved to Grimsby Town, where he spent three and a half years, winning 53% of the games played. From there he moved to Workington Town, like Carlisle and Grimbsy, a Third Division North side.

In 18-months at Workington, he achieved another remarkable transformation in the club's fortunes, and a 42% winning average, before falling-out with the board and leaving, to join former Preston and Scotland team mate Andy Beattie, becoming Beattie's assistant at Huddersfield Town.

Beattie resigned in November, 1956, with Shankly taking over. He quickly introduced the likes of Denis Law and Ray Wilson into the first team, having worked with them in the Reserves, and he had a reasonably-successful spell at Leeds Road, before the board's continued penchant for selling promising players caused him to look elsewhere, and, on 1 December, 1959, he became Liverpool manager. The rest is history.

 World Cup winner Ray Wilson was a Shankly discovery

Now, if we study the above, Wullie Shankly had been a manager for ten years before he arrived at Liverpool. He had presided over 427 games as manager with four clubs and he had a 44% winning record. Shankly, who was 46 when he arrived at Anfield, had served his time as an apprentice manager, in the lower leagues. Now he was in the big time, albeit Liverpool were a sleeping giant, in the English Second Division.

Managing Liverpool was a big job, but not, it can be argued, as big a job as being Scotland manager. Compare Shankly's managerial record prior to Liverpool, with Caldwell's to date. Or,consider how Jock Stein had to go – over eight years, from Celtic reserve coach, via Dunfermline and Hibs back to Celtic, or Alex Ferguson's equally lengthy to glory – East Stirlingshire, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Manchester United.

Nothing against Gary Caldwell's ambition, but, as those old Army RSM's, so-believed of all those Rank Organisation films would roar at their new National Servicemen recruits - “Get some time in.”