Now it's Burley's turn to fulfil the promise

According to the BBC and everyone else, the Scottish Football Association will announce tomorrow morning that George Burley is the new manager. They've taken their time over the appointment, and they've made a good decision.

Burley electrified Scottish football in 2005 when he put took charge at Hearts, put together a new team very quickly, and took the club on an unbeaten run to the top of the SPL, before being sacked by Vladimir Romanov for his impudence.

But he's got more than that to his bow... he's been doing a decent job with limited resources at Southampton, and previously took Ipswich into Europe. Of course, he also got Ipswich relegated too, but he's hardly the first coach to suffer from 2nd Season Syndrome at a club that's been recently promoted.

He's a tracksuit manager, keen to get involved in training sessions, and is used to working with relatively unheralded players and getting them to perform. His man-management and motivational skills will be needed if Scotland are going to build on their progress over the past few years. The squad is improving all the time, but still needs careful attention.

The timing's as good as it gets for an international coach, though... he'll have the home nation championship to practise in before the World Cup qualifying starts in the autumn.

The only other serious option was Mark McGhee, but given what's happened at Motherwell this season it's no shame for him to stay where he is and put his energies into that job.

Good luck to Burley and Scotland. He's the right choice.