Scotland Women have a new interim manager but is the permanent boss a done deal?

Scotland Women’s soccer team has a new boss. Well for a short while anyway. The Scottish FA are still looking for a permanent answer to replace Pedro Martinez Losa. It’s hard to tell whether this is encouraging news, signifies a problem in finding the right person for the job or perhaps signals that more time is needed to get the right person in place. 

With the vacancy becoming available in December and the next matches in the Nations League not until February, it looked as if there was plenty of time to recruit. However, with those matches against Austria and the Netherlands now fast approaching, the decision has been made to appoint Michael McArdle as interim head coach. 

McArdle is currently the Head of Women’s Elite Football for the Scottish FA. Before that, he was the Head of Academy Coaching at St Mirren. McArdle has also taken charge of various Scotland women's teams at Under 23, 19 and 17 levels. So they’ll know McArdle and his capabilities well, although it's fair to say the permanent role could well be a big step at this early stage of his career. 

Does the Scottish FA already know who will be the next permanent Women’s manager?

McArdle has been leading the way in transforming the pathways for Scottish women to reach the international level. He’ll now get a brief chance to put that into practice. Perhaps that pathway to the top level might also include this as a step in a longer-term plan for the manager role.

While McArdle starts work to prepare for those fixtures the search for a permanent manager goes on. The appointment of an interim boss may suggest that they haven't found the right person yet. Or perhaps the right person has been identified and, possibly agreed upon, but isn't available to move or even be announced. 

That would tie in with strong speculation that Glasgow City manager Leanne Ross could be their longer-term solution. With her side leading the way in the League at the moment and chasing a Champions League spot, now would not be the right time to leave. It would also be poor timing to announce now that she would be leaving in the summer. Could Ross be intending to see the season out first or is there another prospect in a similar position already signed up?

We’ll have to wait longer to see. It could be easy to be critical of the SFA, but at least they have acted quickly in putting McArdle in place. Those Nations League matches will be important and Scotland will want to get off to a good start. It could be another pathway for success for McArdle to set in place.