Only two questions were truly relevant when Alex McLeish was appointed to the Scotland job yesterday.

First, is he up to the task? And, second, for how long will he be at it?

There can be few doubts, surely, about McLeish's ability as a manager.

He coveted a job in the Premiership in England and, during the eight months since he left Rangers, was entitled to feel dismay at the widespread ignorance south of the border of his feats at Ibrox, which resulted in a dearth of genuine job offers.

For McLeish to have won seven trophies in his opening three-and-a-half years at Rangers, against a resolutely strong and calculating Celtic team under Martin O'Neill, speaks volumes for his mettle as a coach.

If there was some luck along the way - and the curse for McLeish came in forever being tagged "lucky" - then the mere fact that he had Rangers going neck-and-neck with O'Neill and Celtic for so long seems testament enough.

Yet jobs at such clubs as Sunderland, Leeds United, Charlton and West Ham all came and went without McLeish's name being seriously quoted.

It was a peculiar fate for a man steeped in winning trophies and competing in European football: in the latter case being the first man to lead a Scottish club to the last 16 of the Champions League.

"Alex may have to be quite proactive in terms of getting a club job in England," Andy Roxburgh told me last month in Geneva. "I say that, because it's amazing the way in which you can just fall off the radar screen in football if you're not careful."

Excited as he genuinely is by the Scotland job, a part of McLeish still rues the way in which his significant achievements at Rangers have almost been deleted from history, especially in England.

"I don't think they pay much attention to Scottish football down there, so maybe they weren't aware of me," he said a touch wistfully yesterday.

Now we have the fascinating scenario of McLeish leading Scotland. It is a delicious prospect, not just because it offers him the potential for huge respect in the international arena, but because of the inherent danger the toxic Scotland job also carries of doing him in.

The job is often referred to as "a poisoned chalice" these days, but the truth is that, in a more realistic age, few should see managing Scotland as anything less than a major challenge.

This country has come to share Hungary's garish fate in recent years - a once richly-endowed footballing nation which simply fell into an abyss - and anyone who thinks that McLeish or anyone else should be leading the nation to glory needs to see "the Useless Quack" of CS Lewis fame.

Over the past 10 years Scotland has come to resemble Belgium, Bosnia, Slovenia and Austria in terms of international repute - and fallen behind nations such as Serbia-Montenegro and Switzerland - and the Tartan Army has just had to live with it. There was something wearily familiar in hearing McLeish talk yesterday about using "hard-working" and "tried and tested" players in the ongoing Euro 2008 campaign.

Style and sophistication are out: it is where we are at as a football nation. The Jim Baxters and Billy Bremners might stir in their graves, but even Jock Stein, 25 years ago, in a comparatively golden age, said: "The one thing any Scotland manager needs is realism."

McLeish has a natural stature which should serve his country well. He must hope that the Shaun Maloneys and Derek Riordans continue to develop into players who can haul Scotland out of their slump.