Last updated : 07 September 2009 By Ed_Scottishfitba
Just tell me what you think of me Mr Peat
SFA president George Peat is still keeping his own council about George Burley's future as Scotland manager should Scotland fail to qualify for the World Cup finals. Saturday's 2-0 win over Macedonia maintained Scotland's interest in second place in Group Nine and the chance of a play-off place but manager Burley remains under pressure following some unimpressive results leading to Wednesday's game against the Netherlands,who have already qualified for South Africa next year. Scotland have to win another three points at Hampden on Wednesday to stand a chance of making the home and away play-off ties..
Asked whether Burley would continue should Scotland lose Wednesday'sgame, Peat said: "We haven't discussed that. Let's just wait until the games are all finished. We'll have a better idea after Wednesday. I haven't made up my mind one way or another. We took George on on a four-year contract and we said that halfway through, once the World Cup section had finished, we would sit down and have a talk to see how he felt - because this is his first go at international management, and managers who have been with clubs and get into the routine of club management find it kind of strange when they don't get players on a day-to-day basis. So we said 'have a go at the World Cup campaign, and we'll sit down after that and have a talk to see how he finds things and how we find things'."
Peat offered a less-than-glowing report of the job Burley had done in what he described "as a kind of partial transition period". He said: "When a new manager comes in he tries to change things. When Walter Smith came in after Berti Vogts left, Walter turned the whole place round and we went on a tremendous run. Alex McLeish came in with mainly the same players and kept the momentum going. We know what happens - players get close to an end, and the manager has to find new players. George Burley has had a kind of partial transition period, so it wasn't as if he was just carrying on the way things were left. George himself has been disappointed with some of the results. But we're hoping things are improving - and some of the football that was played against Macedonia, in the second half especially, was very pleasing. He's done a very good job from the point of view that we don't have any world stars. It's been a difficult task for him."
