Hugh Keevins: New balls please!

The thing about Andy Murray is he re-writes the rule book when it comes to being a Scottish sports person.

The world's number one tennis player, as confirmed by his win over Novak Djokovic on Sunday night, doesn't do heroic failure. He doesn't crumble in the face of adversity and he consistently exhibits powers of self belief that make him run contrary to, let's say, the national football team.

Murray is a success, a consistent, case hardened success andacknowledged now as this country's greatest ever sports personality.

And yet when Gordon Strachan was asked before Scotland played England in their World Cup qualifying tie at Wembley if he had ever considered the idea of letting Murray give an inspirational talk to his players it gave the manager the excuse to exhibit the full repetoire of face pulling that is one of his dominant and less appealing characteristics.

The notion was rejected on the basis there was nothing that Strachan could teach Murray about tennis shots so what could Andy do for professional footballers when he had never been one himself.

It's another of Gordon's default settings.

Unless you've played the game at senior level your opinion, far less advice, is invalid and un-wanted. So how come we have a national side in the midst of a long running downward spiral?

Does this mean that what Strachan says to the players no longer resonates with them, or are we just in the grip of a downturn, albeit one that's lasted two years.

You could argue there's every justification for bringing Murray in to talk to the players about how he developed that winning mentality and how he sustains immovable belief in himself enough to make history.

Where's the harm?

It's not as if the manager's position could be undermined in any way. He didn't even need to attend last week's meeting to discuss his future and that of the Scotland team.

The vote of confidence in the manager was unanimous and everone skipped gaily to their getaway cars afterwards rather than do anything radical like telling the public how the SFA Board had arrived at that decision.

You order a curry by telephone. You don't discuss the Scotland manager's future by conference call. But if Gordon is un-burdened by conventional work practices then the rest of us should be free to say that what he says to his players isn't making any difference.

And if he wants to dismiss the idea of the greatest Scottish sportsman of all time having a word with his players then that signals a closed mind.

It's a bit like matches played in Scotland. You never see Gordon at one unless it involves television work as a pundit.

It would be nice if he took a look at what emergent talent, if any, there is at his disposal while carrying out his managerial duties. God knows there's room for a fresh face or two under the current circumstances.

But, in the meantime, Brendan Rodgers, a man who always sounds as if he's amenable to any idea that might be helpful to his squad, takes centre stage.

Celtic against Barcelona in the Champions League, followed by a League Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday brings all of the more positive aspects of our game into focus and allows us to forget the demise of the national side.

If you were asking Murray to peak twice in the space of four days at the very highest level he would know exactly what to do because that's what he does week in, week out while fulfilling the commitments in his diary.

Rodgers shows a decent track record for getting his players through weeks like this one and Aberdeen's Derek McInnes has maintained a commendable level of consistency at Pittodrie.

But I'd be willing to bet that if either manager was offered a chance to have Murray meet their players they would accept on the basis that it could be interesting.

If you already know everything there is to know, on the other hand, you can afford to dismiss the idea.