If rumour is to be believed George Burley is on the brink of leaving St Mary's for Scotland

After a week of rumour and counter rumour it looks very much like George Burley will be offered the job of Scotland manager on Wednesday morning.

To be truthful there wont be many Saints fans who will be disapointed, in fact most will see it as a satisfactory ending to a sorry story.

Of course it is true that Burley has endured a difficult time with  the boardroom shananigans in his two years and one month in charge, but even taking 9into account that, he has not done what many fans would consider a good job, even in the circumstances.

The first six months of Burley's reign gave no indication of the turmoil to follow, on the field at least, yes he had to dismantle the remnants of the Premier team and start to build for the future but in the summer of 2006 it all started to go wrong for George Burley at St Mary's.

Not many Championship managers were handed £7 million to spend that summer, but George was and this was the problem, he did not spend it wisely, the departure of Danny higginbotham for Stoke and replacing him for three times the price with Pele was a major mistake and one that sowed the seeds, paying £1 million for Kelvin Davis also looked folly, after all we had the promising Bart Bialkowski, surely an experienced loan keeper would have been the answer and would have also left more funds for outfield players.

Last season started a little up and down and like this the side struggled to find real consistency with Burley seemingly unable to find his best starting line up, especially up front where BWP and Jones were interchanged far too often meaning neither got the chance to really find form.

One man who couldnt stop scoring was Rasiak, who then found himself frozen out after Xmas despite having scored nearly 20 times, the writing was on the wall and by the end of February the promotion campaign was waning fast.

But then came the breakthrough and to be blunt it was nothing to do with Burley, with players out injured and suspended the manager had no choice but to recall players who hadnt had a sniff of first team action, Bialkowski came in for Davis who would never had been dropped if he hadnt been suspended and Leon Best came back from loan, still Jermaine Wright was picked but when he got injured we won the last three games and sneaked into a play off spot, this was in spite of Burley not because of him.

The play off's were a disaster for Burley tactically, in the first leg he got it all wrong, Pele was marking  Howard, the biggest brute in the division marked by the biggest powder puff, there would only be one ending.

In the second leg, Burley recalled Davis, but again it was the players who Burley had discarded that managed to turn the tie and drag it to penalties, the recalled Skacel, Idiakez and Rasiak all playing major parts, but it was too little too late.

The depth of Saints squad and the talent in it was emphasised when Baird, Jones and Bale were heading for the premiership with other clubs with combined fee's approaching £20 million, Burley really hadnt done a good job.

This season his heart never seemed in it from the start, despite having all the players he had paid £7 million (minus Pele who god knows how we got our money back on him)for as well as the recently signed Saganowski, Burley didnt seem interested and was making his excuses from the start, the 4-0 home drbbing by Palace set the tone, and soon fans were baffled by the managers team selections, tactics and use of substitutes, he just didnt appear interested and was too quick to blame boardroom unrest for the problems on the field rather than leading from the front with a positive attitude.

As the season wound on it became clear that Saints were majorly underachieving, they could produce some good football but team selections were erratic, some players couldnt get a game for love nor money, for that read Saganowski, Rasiak and Viafara, whilst others couldnt get dropped whatever their performance, Euell being just one example.

Saints still have a beter squad than most in this division, problem is if the manager doesnt communicate that belief to the players, then how can we expect the players to believe in themselves, in short we are treading water and even lowly sides like Colchester, Scunthorpe and Preston can make us look mediocre purely by getting stuck in and pushing us back.

The truth is this ending with George getting the Scotland job allows everyone to keep their dignity intact, George Burley who in truth despite the job he has been doing, has never done it with anything less than dignity, the Saints board who wont be seen to be getting rid of another manager and of course the Saints supporters who despite their mumblings about Burley on message boards and letters pages, never turned that into open hostility at matches.

Oh and of course their is the small matter of compensation!!       

Photo: Action Images

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