Former Glasgow Rangers and Everton manager Walter Smith was named as coach of the Scotland national side on Thursday. The 56 year-old Glaswegian replaces Berti Vogts, who resigned a month ago following a string of poor results that saw Scotland drop to 77th in the FIFA rankings, an all time low. Smith has signed a four year contract that will run until the Euro 2008 tournament, due to be held in Switzerland and Austria, and retains Vogts' assistant Tommy Burns as his number two. Impressive recordSmith returns as Scotland coach after a two-and-a-half year break, having been sacked by Everton in March 2002 after four relegation-threatened seasons at the Merseyside club. Before that time though, Smith's record as a coach was impressive. He won 13 trophies in his seven years at Glasgow Rangers, including seven straight league titles. Smith has also been involved at Scotland youth and under-21 level, even working with Alex Ferguson when he was briefly national coach in 1989. So it came as no surprise that the Scottish Football Association (SFA) went for experience over youth in their decision to hand Smith a four year contract, ahead of the former Scottish international and Southampton coach Gordon Strachan. (AP)
Walter Smith named Scotland coach
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