Smith: Managing Scotland is not impossible

The Scottish Football Association chief executive is leading the search for a replacement for George Burley who was sacked on Monday, following the 3-0 defeat by Wales in Cardiff on Saturday. Former Rangers boss Graeme Souness, who has been out of football management since leaving Newcastle in February 2006, was one of several possible candidates to distance himself from the job.

"You could have Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson managing that group of players, but the outcome wouldn't be much different," he said. "It is (a difficult job) in the current climate simply because they don't have the quality."

Smith, who insisted that the SFA had not yet drawn up a shortlist, said: "I think it is a difficult job but not an impossible job.

"I am looking for a manager who has a belief he can do something with this set of players rather than think it is impossible.

"I would not want to appoint anybody who says the players are hopeless. Do we want that? I don't think so.

"If someone's ruling themselves out it might just be to protect themselves from being pestered. You don't know.

"We need to sit down first and foremost to have an idea of the type of candidate we are looking for."

Smith accepted some but not all of the blame for the failure of Burley, who won just three games in 14. "It probably does reflect on me," he said. "I'm aware of the game and what it's like.

"You're tasked with appointing the right manager and you have to do that. I did a lot of work in terms of narrowing down the shortlist. I did the due diligence. But it's not (solely) the chief executive's job to appoint the manager."