If eloquence has not previously been considered one of George Burley’s strong suits, the Scotland manager changed that perception yesterday. He came to Hampden Park to defend his own name, in the case of Kris Boyd, and supplied three pieces of evidence that delivered a damning verdict.

The grounds for Burley’s defence, are: the City of Manchester Stadium, Celtic Park and Easter Road. On three occasions, the Scotland manager turned up at each of these venues with the intention of assessing Boyd, and each time he had a wasted journey. If Burley is being accused of ignoring the Rangers striker, then Walter Smith’s name presumably appears on the charge sheet beside his.

The sum total of Boyd’s time in a Rangers shirt on the occasions he was scouted by his national manager was four minutes. That was the cameo role that Smith gave him at the Uefa Cup final in May against Zenit St Petersburg, while in the Old Firm away win six weeks ago, Boyd was not even stripped for action. Against Hibernian, he never came off the bench.

Boyd has not started for his club for more than three weeks and had to make do with a 25-minute substitute appearance in the 1-0 away defeat against St Mirren. So, surely Burley cannot be cast as the villain, if he is merely replicating the judgment of Smith at club level? “I went to big games, such as the Uefa Cup final and the Old Firm derby, and Kris did not play, so he has yet to establish himself in his club side,” Burley said.

“I went to see Rangers recently at Celtic and Hibernian and he did not play either time. Yet I named him in the Scotland squads. He was the only person in the squad of 25 who is not a playing regularly for his club. That was my choice. I wanted to keep him in the squad. If other players looked sharper and brighter than him, that is why they got the chance.

“I’m sure now Kris wants to concentrate on club football, he wants to get a regular place at Rangers, and that is the way he will show everybody what he can do.”

The impressive sequence of statistics that Boyd has at club level, where he had 100 goals in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League to his name by the time he was 24 after progressing from Kilmarnock to Rangers, have counted for very little at international level. Smith left Boyd out of key games when he was Scotland manager, as did Alex McLeish. However, Boyd’s exclusion at Ibrox by Smith has brought not a hint of dissent.

When Burley was asked yesterday if he felt that Boyd had not shown the sort of respect to him as national manager, that was given to either Smith or McLeish, he replied: “I don’t know about my predecessors but this is just a lack of respect towards the country.”

Burley, of course, is not simply quoting a party line. He knows from personal experience how hard it is to turn up on Scotland duty and not be handed a shirt. Even Burley's impressive CV as a right back with Ipswich Town — who had won the Uefa Cup and came close to becoming English champions — could not move Jock Stein to favour him ahead of an impressive array of defenders in Spain in 1982. “I went to the World Cup finals and never played a game,” Burley recalled yesterday. “It is a big honour to play for Scotland. Of course people are disappointed when they are not playing or not on the bench. You want to play for your country. Kris has decided he does not want to play and that is disappointing.

“I know I am not going to be a favourite in this and that Kris has a lot of fans out there, but reputations are in the past. It is what now that counts, not five or six months ago. Or longer. If it was about what you did in the past, Kenny Dalglish would still be playing.”

Boyd informed Burley of his decision by leaving a message on the Scotland manager’s mobile phone on Sunday before the pair had a brief conversation.

“Kris just said he felt that he had fallen down the pecking order and was not getting a chance and that he wanted to concentrate on his club career,” Burley said. “Whatever the reasons, it is not helping Scotland and that is all I care about.

“Kris and I never had a bad word. Players have to realise they are not going to play every game or be in every squad. That is when they have to handle it. I will make unpopular decisions but it is for the good of the country. I base my team selction on what I see in training, end of story. Of course it is a loss. I was looking for him to progress and to show his best on the training pitch, but I have not seen that. For people say that Kris has nothing to prove, is wrong — we all have something to prove.”

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