Just about everyone is against him, from the Tartan Army to the press. Yet he refuses to go. Why? Well, would you resign from a cushy job paying in excess of half a million quid a year when if you hang around a bit longer you'll get even more? Mind you, from what I have read and heard it seems Berti already has enough money to last a few lifetimes, so maybe it isn't money.
Could it, possibly, be that he somehow thinks he is doing a good job? Anyone with half a footballing brain can tell that he isn't, yet he believes that he is. We can come to this conclusion from the fact that he thought we did well against Norway and feels he has improved the side since he took over it two and a half years ago. The only thing that has changed is going from slightly embarrassing results to extremely embarrassing ones. In the past 12 months Scotland have dropped a massive 14 places down the world rankings, and are now behind footballing powers such as Iraq, Guatemala and, ironically, Berti's old team Kuwait. How many folk can name players from those countries, let alone ones actually playing for those national sides?
Mind you, at the moment Scotland fans have enough trouble knowing who their own players are. When I told someone Scotland had scored against Norway (as I thought Richard Hughes might actually be able to hit the ball slightly harder than a five year old with a sponge ball) and said that Hughes had scored, the person immediately thought I meant Stephen of Rangers. When I told them it was a guy who plays for Portsmouth, I was met with a blank look and told he'd never heard of the player!
That's a good thing though if you listen to Berti. He toyed with playing Lee McCulloch against Moldova because the Moldovan coach might know the Scotland squad (more than the Tartan Army do) but he wouldn't know McCulloch. The Moldovan coach doesn't know much about me either; maybe I should get a call up. Whilst on the subject of McCulloch, why has someone with ten goals in the last one and a bit seasons for a decent side getting near the squad? God only knows.
That neatly brings me on to the oft stated argument about Scotland not having the quality of players required to do anything in the international arena these days. Nonsense. Vogts has near enough the same players to choose from as he did when we beat Iceland twice, drew with Germany and beat Holland at Hampden. Apart from the odd injury, nothing has changed. Why were the same players who were good enough to get those results suddenly not good enough to beat Moldova, Slovenia or even draw against the worst Norwegian side in history? Greece don't have many superb players yet won Euro 2004. We don't even want that much, just making it to a tournament will do us! Everyone else seems to be improving, despite having poor players, yet we are rubbish. Why?
Well, at the risk of being different to everyone else, could it be down to Berti Vogts and the players he actually chooses? Stevie Crawford constantly fails at international level, yet managed to get a start against Moldova, so obviously has some dodgy pictures of Vogts to guarantee his place in the team. Kenny Miller is constantly overlooked, whilst absolute eejits like Paul Dickov get a game. Dickov may be able to score at club level, but has just one strike to his name for his country, whilst he constantly narks at players and seems to be a few steps from being a ned. Gary Holt seems to be useless, though was played slightly out of position against Norway on Saturday, whilst there have been too many others to mention who have come for a few caps then disappeared as Berti suddenly realises they are useless. Paul Ritchie anyone?
What we have to remember, though, is that it's not Berti's fault. It's the press, the fans, the clubs for not bringing in enough players, the referee, the pitch and so on. Anyone apart from him. We're not to judge him on friendly results, just the competitive ones. Obviously an exception is made when we win a friendly, as after we beat the footballing might of Trinidad and Tobago he took the chance to have a dig at Charlie Nicholas. When will Vogts start to admit his mistakes? Hopefully never as far as Scotland are concerned, as he won't be in a job for long.
Of course, Berti does have a few partners in crime who have assisted him with Scotland's downfall. His assistant Tommy Burns doesn't seem to do much, and had a nice wee dig at the press early last week, moaning about them for moaning at the team. Sorry Tommy, but the job of the press is to reflect the public opinion and the opinion is that Scotland are rank. The press want the national team to do just as well as you do, but if the only way this can be achieved is by dishing out criticism then that's fine by me. Rainer Bonhof with the under 21 side isn't much better, despite almost getting them to the European finals last time around. Its ages since they’ve had a win, and our own Simon Lappin is the only SFL player in the squad. Why? Daryl Duffy is hammering in goals for Falkirk, why isn't he getting called up?
However, Burns and Bonhof are just bit part players in the awful Scotland side we have at present. The main person I have a problem with, other than Vogts obviously, is David Taylor of the SFA. The man who head hunted Vogts from Kuwait (the fact he was there after managing Germany should have been a clue he was useless) claims it wasn't a mistake to appoint Vogts. Hmmm. Taylor's position on Vogts seems to change by the minute. Vogts job wasn't in threat after the Norway game, but suddenly it seemed it was a day later. A few hours after the Moldova embarrassment, he said that the situation would be reviewed, but later that day claimed that we didn't need a new manager. Make your mind up man! Taylor is almost as bad as Vogts; if he can't see the problem then he really is a clown. I can accept that it might be a bit pricey to sack Vogts, but as we won't make the World Cup just use the proposed player bonuses. Simple!
Taylor claims there is no point in change for change's sake, and doesn't really think a new man would do better. Nonsense. He'd actually know that tactics aren't breath sweets, and might actually pick the right players and play them in their correct position. Who to replace Vogts? Well, the main choice among the fans seems to be Gordon Strachan, which would be fine by me. The SFA seem to favour Walter Smith, which wouldn’t be too bad. Other names include George Graham, Jim Duffy and Jim Jeffries. No problems there either.
They would certainly all do better than Vogts. In fact, I think anyone would do better. Never have I heard so many people say that they could do better than the current eejit in the job. The Tartan Army clearly feel that someone could do better, hence the rare booing and abusive chants after full time last Wednesday. On that subject, anyone thinking the abuse Vogts has been getting is racist is a clown. I haven't heard or read one bit of racist abuse about Vogts since he took the job. The fans were quite right to give him abuse, as they had spent a hell of a lot of money to travel and see their country and were rewarded with something which couldn't even pass as a mediocre performance.
Vogts time is definitely up. If we replace him now then the new man can use the rest of this campaign to sort the team out. We aren't going to qualify anyway, and it saves wasting the qualifiers for the Euros getting a team together. The sooner the SFA act the better.
Whilst I'm not a fan of Vogts, and never have been since he took the job (he's given me about three moments of happiness in two years, four when he resigns/gets the boot), you have to admire his bravery last week. After picking up a touchline ban in the Norway game, he found himself in the middle of the Tartan Army. The papers claim he was horrified to find himself there, but I disagree. I think he chose to sit there, and considering all the abuse he had been taking since the Norway game, that was incredibly brave. Just a shame he's a duff manager who should leave us so that we can try to salvage something from the mess he has given us.