Boyd & Burley – Give It A Rest

Why on earth can’t the media just put the whole ‘Kris Boyd should be playing for Scotland’ thing to bed now? It’s really starting to get embarrassing.

Clearly there are those in the Press who have an agenda against Scotland manager George Burley and are using the Boyd situation as a clear excuse to have a go at him, which is a shame because in the end the only people that this is really going to hurt is the Scotland national team.

Whether or not these people realise the damage that they’re doing to Scotland is anyone’s guess of course, but I do suspect that in many cases even if they did, they’d still be sticking the boot into Burley, which is obviously disappointing.

I must admit, I do wonder what the reaction would be to this is the Scotland manager was still Walter Smith, and he for whatever reason had opted not to bring on a striker who was neither match fit nor in form in a crucial World Cup qualifier. My guess is that he’d be given an infinitely easier ride, even if opinions were split on the decision he’d taken. I wonder why that would be?

Maybe Burley has been his own worst enemy at times in the way that he’s dealt with some of his players and indeed the Press since becoming the Scotland manager. I can’t honestly say if he has or not as I simply don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but as far as I can see he hasn’t done a thing wrong in his handling of this particular situation. He made substitutions during the Scotland-Norway that he felt would best change the game in his team’s favour, and in the end, regardless of what people might say about THAT horrendous miss (which was a freak occurrence), they worked – Scotland were much more effective in the second half and played some good stuff, largely because the two forwards were pacy, hard-working and gelled well together. There are no guarantees that the team would have been able to do this with Boyd in it, as he is an entirely different proposition in terms of what he offers -in fact, I’d seriously doubt the team’s ability to play as they did that day with him in it, as he’s just not a good enough all round footballer.

But even if it WAS the incorrect decision not to use him, the only person who has done anything wrong subsequently is Kris Boyd himself. He is the one who went in the huff and turned his back on the national team, not Burley, whose comments still seem to indicate that he’s leaving the door open for Boyd if he wants to sort out his attitude in the future, something that I find a bit overly understanding given the circumstances to be honest. So why isn’t Boyd the one getting the pelters? He is the one who has brought all of this on, so if anyone has a responsibility to admit they got it wrong and ask for a second chance, then it’s him.

It’s now about time that the Press took their blinkers off and let Burley get on with his job. Some of the reports being written on this subject have been absolutely nauseating at times, and as for certain radio phone-ins, don’t even get me started on some of the comments being branded around on those…..