Chris Sutton believes that an England win at Wembley tomorrow night will lead to the resignation of Gordon Strachan.
Sutton’s Celtic career was effectively ended when Strachan took over from Martin O’Neill with the on screen relationship between the two on BT Sport always frosty.
The Scotland boss has been hammered from all sides since his side crashed to a 3-0 defeat in Slovakia leaving them trailing in what is probably the weakest of the World Cup qualifying groups.
Strachan has refused to discuss his future in any way but if Scotland’s qualification chances are effectively over after four matches even Stuart Regan will have a job justifying Strachan’s continued employment.
Never afraid to shirk the big issues Sutton writes on the BBC website: “If Scotland lose at Wembley on Friday, I think Gordon Strachan will walk. For Gareth Southgate, it is a bit different.
“Southgate needs a strong England performance and a convincing victory for people to feel he deserves the chance to be manager on a permanent basis, and for there to be a bit of hope for the future but the likelihood is that he will get the job anyway, as long as he gets any sort of win.”
Sutton added: “Nobody was expecting Scotland to win Group F but they should be right in the mix for second place. Instead, their whole campaign has been disappointing.
“The level of their performances has not been good and neither have their results – not just in qualifying for Russia 2018 but in all of their competitive fixtures over the past 18 months.
“On top of that, there has been Gordon’s negative body language and responses in interviews.
“Without going over old ground too much, I think he has given Scottish football a bit of a kicking at times with some of his recent comments.
“When he said in the summer that Scotland were a nation of scared footballers, well if I was part of his squad then I would not be overly impressed to hear my manager say that. It can hardly have helped morale before qualifying started.”
CLICK HERE for Celtic’s greatest Englishmen
CLICK HERE for the Celtic/Scotland IX from World Cups 74-98