After the tears and heartbreak of Tuesday night in Helsinki, and Scotland’s failure to make it to next summer’s European Championships, it’s now just a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ Pedro Martinez Losa is jettisoned.
Discussions will be held at SFA boardroom level as the head coach’s future is determined and, while there is unlikely to be any rush for a decision, it’s highly unlikely the 48-year-old will survive a second successive play-off defeat.
In the immediate aftermath of a limp 2-0 defeat to Finland – that has now made it six years since Scotland’s women have featured at a major tournament – there was a reticence on the part of Hampden chiefs to make a quick call over the Spaniard.
There’s only a brief pause in the international calendar until the end of February, before the Nations League campaign kicks off against Austria and the Netherlands, which would still give the SFA scope to find a replacement.
It’s hard to believe that there remained sufficient confidence in Martinez Losa – after the play-off defeat to the Republic of Ireland at Hampden in a World Cup play-off in October 2022 – to hand him a four-year extension to his contract.
While that raised eyebrows at the time, it’s unlikely to prohibit the swinging of the axe. Mail Sport understands that a termination clause would yield a specific time frame to be compensated, believed to be a year, rather than the entirety of his deal.
Pedro Martinez Losa cuts a lonely figure after his team’s 2-0 defeat in Helsinki
Erin Cuthbert looks dejected after a missed opportunity against the Finns
Tears for Scotland goalkeeper Eartha Cumings as Scots fail to qualify for Euros
The SFA didn’t rush into a decision over Steve Clarke after this summer’s disappointing European Championships, with their patience arguably vindicated by recent results. However, the big difference when it comes to Clarke and Martinez Losa is that the men’s boss had significant credit in the bank.
Scotland may have been disappointing in both Euros under Clarke’s command, but qualification at least pointed to success in appointing him in the first place.
When Martinez Losa was given the job in 2021, Scotland had just failed to make the Euros following a campaign in which they had been seeded and expected to top their group. It was, frankly, a disaster.
At the time, Scotland player Lisa Evans insisted there was a need for ‘greater professionalism’ around the whole set-up. Martinez Losa was brought into the fold to fix that problem, with his main remit to qualify for major tournaments. Two failures in a row since then isn’t a good look.
When asked if he still believed he was the right man for the job after Tuesday night’s flop, the Spaniard suggested that it wasn’t about ‘the right man’. Instead, he said, it was about the ‘right circumstances’ that are needed for Scotland to make it to a major tournament.
Let’s examine a few damning facts, then.
Martinez Losa has arguably been in charge of the most talented midfield ever made available to any Scotland women’s manager.
Erin Cuthbert is part of a Chelsea side who are among the best in Europe, Caroline Weir is attracting all kinds of acclaim at Real Madrid while Sam Kerr is successfully plying her trade at Bayern Munich.
Finland keeper Tinja-Riika makes a save from Scotland’s Martha Thomas
Euro dream is over for the Scots after Finland reached finals in Switzerland at their expense
Star midfielder Erin Cuthbert is floored on a tough night for Pedro Martinez Losa’s team
Getting a tune out of this squad – a significant number of whom compete at the elite level every week – should be plausible.
Consider this also. Scotland have beaten only three teams ranked in the top 30 across his three years in charge – and only one has come in a competitive meeting, against Austria.
It’s hard to make any kind of defence for Martinez Losa when his task was to take the team to a first major finals since the World Cup in 2019.
However, there are serious questions to be asked of the players, too, and their inability to cope with pressure when it gets to the crunch stage of play-offs.
The women’s game in Scotland is in a chicken-and-egg position. More investment is necessary to grow the game domestically, and it’s equally impossible to ignore the rapid acceleration which has taken places in other leagues around Europe.
The failure to reach last summer’s World Cup, the most commercially viable women’s football tournament there has ever been, coupled with failure to make it to next summer’s Euros leaves Scotland as limp outcasts. And the gap is constantly widening.
Attendances have been low for the national team’s games. The energy and excitement that was generated when a crowd of 18,555 turned up at Hampden for a friendly against Jamaica ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France was never replicated.
Games have been moved from Mount Florida to Easter Road to try to create some kind of atmosphere. But even for last Friday’s first leg with the Finns – with all that was at stake and with Scotland going into the game on the back of a strong run of results – there was no prospect of a five-figure attendance.
Whoever comes in now has a hell of a job on their hands to turn it all around.
This week’s defeat in Helsinki confirmed what many had anticipated on the back of the insipid goalless draw in Edinburgh. Finland, currently three places below Martinez Losa’s side in the FIFA World rankings, will head to Switzerland in July at Scotland’s expense. They have qualified for five of the last six European Championships.
And Scotland? A third successive failure for Scotland to make it to a major tournament and the second under the Spaniard’s watch.
So, why couldn’t he motivate his team when it came to the crunch? Why could the players not recreate their club form for their country? Why do they seem to be freezing in the play-offs?
Martinez Losa won’t be given a chance to answer those questions.
