McLeish the right man for Scotland, says Walter Smith
The former Rangers boss claims the Scottish FA should have approached McLeish sooner
Walter Smith may have resisted the urge of a possible return to the Scotland set up, but believes the Scottish Football Association chose the right man in Alex McLeish - and should have got him sooner.
Smith was in charge of the national team between 2004 and 2007 before returning to Rangers for a second stint, eventually retiring in 2011.
The former Everton boss was linked with the post after the departure of Gordon Strachan in October.
However, ultimately, McLeish was named Scotland manager for the second time last month and is preparing for the friendly against Costa Rica at Hampden Park on Friday night before a second challenge match against Hungary next Tuesday night.
Smith, 70, was speaking at Ibrox where he was helping publicise a legends match on Saturday with the proceeds split between the Rangers charity foundation and the Rangers youth development company.
He said: "I never got to the stage where, despite what you might have read that the SFA offered me the job, they only asked if I would be prepared to come out of retirement and that is effectively where it was.
"It was nothing to do with that (SFA moving slowly) it was my own circumstances more than anything else that mattered on that one.
"I suppose there is always a little bit of a pull to come back again but in the end I felt I had been out for too long a period and happy enough to get my golf handicap down - which I am failing to do.
"Alex McLeish is a tried and tested manager. If anything, he is one that they should have gone for in the first place.
"His record as Scotland team manager was good.
"I didn't see any reason why they shouldn't have attempted to get him in the first place. He is back there now and gets another opportunity.
"He will obviously take a few games to get himself back into the run of things again and see what the standard of player is like in comparison to the ones he had previously and make up his mind what he is going to do.
"But the European Championship this time offers a good opportunity for a national team manager, there are a couple of ways you can get yourself into the qualifying position so hopefully the good run that Scotland finished when Gordon Strachan was there can continue.'