Levein hoping for a Scotland v England clash for 2012 qualifiers

Bold statement from the new boss

Craig Levein wants England in the draw for the Euro 2012 qualifiers this Sunday. That may seem like a strange request from any Scottish manger but perhaps Levein knows what he is doing. After all, you have to play one of the top seeds, perhaps the passion involved in these clashes could make for an unlikely outcome.

Don’t forget, Levein managed to get his Dundee United players fired up for the games against Celtic and Rangers…only to see them perform under-par against teams like Hamilton Academical and Falkirk. The big games may bring out the best in manager and players.

A draw against England would also bring further benefits:

John Terry and Alan McGregor could swap notes

We might just give them a bloody nose (and not at Central Station)

Another important thing for Levein to do, and a reason why the SFA said they wanted their man in charge by this point, is to assist with the fixture list and hopefully get it working in Scotlands favour.

“I’ve got a strategy that I think might work,”

“I’ll need to sit down once the draw has been made and finalise that and go over to the draws meeting and see if we can get what we are looking for.

“There are loads of factors that you have to take into account. You have to think about which teams are playing in the World Cup – will that have an effect on their performances early in the Euro qualifying?”

“You have to look at the temperature in the countries when you are playing, which countries have different seasons to ours.”

The last few of these comments can easily be read alongside Scotland’s World Cup 2010 campaign so hopefully Levein has a plan of action that he can get into place. Make no mistake, if Scotland are to get back to a major tournament, a lot of things need to go in their favour.

Who do you want in Sunday’s draw?

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