‘Martinez Losa reign ultimately looks like a failure’

Pedro Martinez Losa’s disappointing reign as Scotland boss came after defeat by a Finland side three places lower in the rankings, albeit the relative positions were skewed by the Scots’ recent fixtures being against lesser opposition while Marko Saloranta’s side were being relegated from the tougher League A.

His exit seemed inevitable given Scotland’s failure to qualify for a third consecutive major finals, their second during his watch.

Former Scotland midfielder Leanne Crichton thinks questions were always going to be asked given the Spaniard had been tasked with ending that major tournament drought.

“For Pedro, it was a mixed bag,” she told BBC Scotland. “If you look at some of the achievements and identity of the team, it started to change and at points it looked really positive, but for any national team manager, it’s getting to major tournaments and, when you don’t do that, ultimately it looks like a failure.

“In the world that we live in now with football, there’s always an expectation that managers will lose their job if they don’t deliver the remit expected of them.”