McLeish deserves a fair trial

And I'm not talking about the Hungarian fans.

The transition from Gordon Strachan to Alex McLeish as Scotland manager has been such a contentious affair that a climate of open hostility now engulfs the man in charge of the team and the SFA office bearers who appointed him.

Saturday night's calls to Superscoreboard vouched for that being the case.

Rarely, if ever, have the re been such a varied and dyspeptic series of complaints.

The manager should never have been given the job in the first place.

The players don't sing Flower of Scotland and that's a bad sign.

The choice of Costa Rica as McLeish's first opponents was flawed.

The National Stadium is unfit for purpose.

And so it went on.

Managers traditionally go into jobs and find a climate of hostility and resentment growing up around them on the back of negative results.

McLeish has started his second spell in charge of the national team with resentment and hostility already in place and he has become a divisive issue as much as the personnel he chooses and the tactical formation he employs.

It is a unique situation, even in the recently volatile history of a country where internal division has become a way of life.

And unless Alex can develop a team good enough to distract attention away from internicine division, and in jig time, then he could find himself trapped in a poisonous atmosphere which will do more damage than any team he comes up against.

Historically, managers have begun new jobs while being given the benefit of the doubt by those who sit in judgement of them.

They are there, after all, because there was something wrong in the first place and they are normally innocent until proved guilty of not being able to make a positive difference.

McLeish's recent past, however, is now being read out like a charge sheet and is being used in evidence against him by his detractors while they present a case for his unsuitability for the post in which he has been placed.

The man whose appointment was greeted, for the most part, with consternation has now moved towards condemnation on the back of one friendly game and the concession of one goal to the opposition in that match against Costa Rica at Hampden last Friday night.

It now feels as if McLeish's critics are hoping for a Hungary win so that they can use the result as absolute proof of a terrible decision having been made with regard to his selection in the first place.

We have been bad before. We have been worse than bad before. But what's going on now offers evidence of a country unhappy with itself.

McLeish is the un-forgiven because he left the Scotland manager's job to re-enter the world of club football with Birmingham City eleven years ago.

He is dis-credited because his managerial career in the years since then has been considerably less than a glowing success in several countries.

He is also abused on the basis that his return to the Scotland job is largely perceived to be an overt example of cronyism, a visual demonstration of the old pal's act as casrried out by his old friend, the SFA President, Alan McRae.

When the time comes, if all of the evidence collated points to this being the case then I will be the first to lead the charge for McLeish's head to roll.

Such is life in the world of the people versus football managers.

But it is customary for the jurors to be sent away to consider their verdict after all the evidence has been heard.

McLeish has had one friendly game and has several more in which to form the impression of whether he can still manage at the top level or if his powers have withered and died due to time and rueful experience.

At the moment there appears to be no need for the jury to be directed by the judge as to their options.

There is, on the other hand, a tree, a noose and a vigilante movement forming with little inclination being shown towards waiting for reasons being offered not to carry out an execution.

That runs contrary to what constitutes natural justice, even in the world of football. Be honest

• Hugh Keevins