Anybody got any ideas?

Brace yourselves.

The news that the SFA is poised to ask Walter Smith to come out of retirement and replace Gordon Strachan as Scotland manager will divide public opinion in a way that will make the independence referendum of 2014 seem like a good natured debate between old friends.

Any appointment made by the governing body in the aftermath of the botched attempt to hire Northern Ireland manager, Michael O’Neill, will stimulate vigorous discussion.

After all, the failure to land the man who was supposed to represent a new dawn for the national team saw the SFA’s Chief Executive, Stewart Regan, fall on his sword and thrust the sitting President, Alan McRae, and the President-elect, Rod Petrie, to the front of the queue for public disapproval.

Their popularity rating will now be gauged on the wisdom of the next choice they make at managerial level.

But the call to a sixty-nine year old thought to have been living by the seaside in peaceful contemplation of a successful career at club level will exercise the minds of those who won’t take past achievements into consideration.

Walter will be pilloried for having once turned his back on the Scotland job to return to Ibrox and manage Rangers in the wake of the failed experiment to go foreign and appoint Frenchman Paul Le Guen.

Saying that Rangers was the only club he’d have left Scotland for didn’t wash with a section of the Tartan Army when that was Walter’s move in 2007 and it won’t wash with them now.

Others will ask why the SFA were prepared to fork out half a million pounds in compensation for O’Neill, and pay him a record salary for the post, on the basis that he represented a new beginning but are now preparing to bring a man out of retirement who hasn’t worked in management for the last seven years.

And then there will be those who will be opposed to Walter’s name even being discussed on the basis that he comes from the wrong side of the Great Divide in Glasgow.

It would be exactly the same if the SFA approached Neil Lennon and asked him if he was willing to leave Hibs and take on the Scotland job.

Those whose arguments are colour coded are best left muttering away to themselves and ignored while the rest of us get on with analysing where we’re going with a national team in severe need of strong leadership while trying to end what has been, so far, a twenty year exile from international football’s main stage.

Kilmarnock’s manager, Steve Clarke, had his supporters for the Scotland job long before his team beat Celtic convincingly at the weekend.

But the estimable Clarke, who has completely transformed what was an ailing club, has, by his public utterances on the subject, given no hint that he would incline towards leaving Rugby Park to work for the SFA.

And the last thing the governing body of our game needs is to be knocked back by a second choice after the man they first thought of gave them a very public rejection.

That’s not to say Smith should therefore be given the job purely and simply on the basis that he’s doing nothing else, lives quite nearby and won’t cost anything beyond his annual wage.

He is, though, a man of proven managerial talent and his time in charge of Scotland saw the national team move in an upward direction. Admittedly, that was some time ago but they always say in football that once you’ve got it you never lose it.

And you can forget arguing against his appointment on the basis of age. There wouldn’t have been a murmur of complaint from any quarter if Sir Alex Ferguson had been asked to act as his country’s saviour, and he’s considerably older than Walter.

What has to be hoped is that, if there is to be a formal approach made to Smith this week, it is on the basis that the SFA Board is in unanimous agreement that this is the right thing to to.

Anybody who has ever been on the wrong side of the stare that Smith gives when he is confronted by stupidity in word, thought or deed will know that he will have no intention of getting caught up in some internal disagreement over whether he represents good idea or not.

What Smith offers is lengthy experience of the game at the highest level, and a C.V. which proves that experience resulted in a trophy-laden past.

Now the arguments can rage over whether he is indicative of a backward step. Nostalgia working in tandem with necessity.

Does anybody have any better ideas?

Don’t all rush at once, I was being facetious. There will, in all likelihood, be no end of counter arguments to Smith’s appointment.

But would Smith, assisted by Malky Mackay at match times for instance, be such a bad idea? Malky is in charge of Project Brave, I know, but he doesn’t have to be chained to his desk. A little fresh air out on the training pitch might be good for him and Scotland.

The SFA resembles a rudderless ship, no national team boss, no Chief Executive and no guarantee of success whoever’s selected to look after the national team.

Smith’s arrival couldn’t be seen as an attempt to hide bad news while everyone was looking elsewhere. It might just be what the national team, and the governing body, need at this particular time.

There were those exciteable types who wanted him to be given a Knighthood when he was in charge at Ibrox and Rangers were making it to a European final.

If the SFA say, “Arise Sir Walter” there’ll be the usual stooshie but then he can get on with his remit to take Scotland to a major final.

And whatever age you are, and whatever you’ve done in the past, will be of no consequence. You’ll be another manager being judged on your results. The way it should be

• superscoreboard
• Hugh Keevins