One minute Steven Pressley was proudly motoring towards 50 caps and a place in Scotland’s Hall of Fame.
The next, he was holding George Burley’s clipboard as part of a chaotic management team which was destined to end in embarrassment and shame. In this week’s episode of our new explosive new podcast Off the Record Pressley lifts the lid on one of the most controversial periods in the history of our national team, including his part in the Boozegate scandal which would bring Burley down – and end the Scotland career of Barry Ferguson and very nearly that of Fergie’s Rangers pal Allan McGregor.
Pressley reveals how it all began when his own playing days in a Scotland shirt came to a shuddering halt when he was red-carded for an Andriy Shevchenko dive during Walter Smith’s last game in charge. Pressley takes up the story and said: “At times some of the enjoyment had gone out of playing for Scotland. During the Berti Vogts times, they were difficult years. It was difficult playing at Hampden sometimes with so many call-offs in front of eight or nine thousand supporters. It was a tough period.
“Then Walter came in and completely put the belief back in the team and the country and I really enjoyed my time working with him. Alex McLeish had just taken over after that game against Ukraine and I was suspended for a game.
"Stephen McManus came in and played well and I never managed to get my position back after that. Then, not long after, I became a coach within the organisation.”
And that’s when Pressley found himself locked into the epicentre of an imminent national disaster – after disregarding a warning from yours truly. He went on: “Do you know what’s interesting and I remember this, I received a phone call from you Keith, not too long before I accepted the job. And you told me not to take it. And, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have taken it.
“But the problem was I was 33, I had just gone in for a back operation and my career was coming to a little bit of a crossroads. I was beginning to think about coaching more and more.
“Then this opportunity arose. And for a young 33-year-old to get the opportunity to work as an assistant coach for your national team, is a huge honour and very difficult to turn down.
“The issue was I was still a Celtic player. And I was a Celtic player in the coaching staff when a good percentage of the squad were Rangers players, I don’t think that sat particularly well with some of the Rangers players.
“I understand that and, again, in hindsight it was probably the wrong decision but it was hard to turn down as an aspiring coach. The other thing was that they put me immediately on my pro-licence through the SFA which was another major factor in me taking the job.
“I had a really strong relationship with him [Burley] and he had made such an impression at Hearts that I hoped George would go in there and do something similar at Scotland. But it wasn’t to be and in the end I lost my job there.”
Asked if he ever considered advising Burley to stand down, Pressley said: “It wasn’t really my call that. That would have been George’s call.
“But it was a really difficult period for him and I feel for him because I actually think if George had gone in there at the right time, in the right frame of mind, that George could have done a very good job with Scotland. But I just felt the timing was wrong. He wasn’t in a good place in his life and it was reflected by what eventually happened.”
It ended in scenes of absolute carnage in the bar of the plush Cameron House hotel on the morning after a play-off thrashing from Holland – with the most notorious all nighter in Scottish football history. Boozegate.
Pressley said: “Do you know what happened? Do you want me to go into it at all? I came down in the morning to meet my family. It was Sunday morning.
“I entered the bar area and then I walked back out. As I was walking out of the bar area I thought to myself, ‘Why has Barry still got all his gear on?’. And also Allan McGregor.
“So anyway, me along with one of the barmaids and a member of staff, guided them back to their room and put them in their room. Of course, I thought that was it and I went back down to meet my family.
“But what transpired was that Barry then, from his room, decided to go back down the stairs and I think then he went into the health club of course, where everybody could see him. And then the rest is history. That’s the reality of it. That’s what happened.”
A number of other star names _ including Celtic star Scott Brown – had spent the night drowning their sorrows after Burley sanctioned the booze-up.
Pressley nodded: “Yes, there was. But the point is, when I arrived, it was Allan and Barry. That’s who I came across at the time. The rest sort of unravelled over the next day or so.
“I understood Barry didn’t think he’d been protected – he felt he’d been hung out to dry. But I had to remind Barry that ultimately it was his behaviour and his decisions which had got him into that situation.
"I don’t think he was happy about the way it was handled but there’s also got to be an element of, you know, self-responsibility. There was no way that I was looking to hang anybody out to dry.
“I felt the SFA used me a little bit as a scapegoat and allowed George to move on. I was disappointed with the way it ended because they spoke to me, told me they were going to release a certain statement, and then before I even knew it, there was a statement out there that completely contradicted what they said they were going to release.
“So I was disappointed with elements of that as well because I felt they were passing the buck to me. I felt I was harshly treated yet I was the one who was trying to do the right things. But, again, sometimes you need to defend yourself and I didn’t do that.”
