A SHREWD JUDGE?

This is a picture of one Kris Boyd, who plies his trade as a footballer for Rangers up in Scotland. I don`t know much about him, but I have gleaned that he is 25, has scored 54 goals for Rangers in 82 appearances and seven goals for Scotland in 14 games. He also scored 63 goals for Kilmarnock before moving to Rangers, all of which currently makes him the second highest goalscorer in the history of the Scottish Premier League. By any benchmark, a thoroughly enviable reputation.

So perhaps one can begin to understand his disenchantment with Scotland manager, George Burley, for whom Boyd has said he never wants to play again all the time he manages Scotland. For Burley, you see, has left Boyd on the bench for at least the last two of Scotland`s World Cup qualifiers, whilst the players he has selected have elevated underachievement to an art form, culminating in Chris Iwelumo`s spectacular miss from about 4 inches in Saturday`s goalless draw with Norway.

I`m not gloating - honest, I`m not. I sincerely wish our Caledonian friends best wishes in their footballing endeavours. But I can`t help a kind of inward smirk at the antics of manager Burley, who until a year or so ago was manager of my beloved Saints. Now, at the time of his departure there were rumblings of serious discontent among the St. Mary`s faithful not only at the lack of results but also the lack of any touchline initiative - never mind `passion` - from Burley.

So we could hardly believe our good fortune when Burley was offered the Scotland manager job. We made noises about how sorry we were to see him go, but couldn`t stand in his way when his country came calling and, by the way, can we please have £300,000 compensation for losing his services? Happily and in all innocence, the Scottish FA coughed up.

`Kris who?`

Burley`s judgement was always questionable, whether it be tactics, recruitment or team selection and these shortcomings are now being exposed on the world stage. Which makes Mr. Boyd`s decision not one of disloyalty to his country, but simply one of shrewd judgement. In the meantime, I imagine he will bide his time until Burley seeks pastures new. He may not have long to wait.