"Gordon has had success in Scotland with Celtic - winning the title three times and getting the club through to the knockout stages when they were downsizing - and he has managed in the English Premier League (with Coventry and Southampton)," says Walker

"A lot of our players have Champions League experience, are playing in the English Premier League or in big games in the SPL. They will respect what Gordon has achieved as a manager, not to mention what he achieved as a player, winning 50 caps for Scotland and being one of our better players in an era when we had so many quality ones.

"We need to get some respectability back into our qualifying campaign as no-one thought we would be bottom of the table, so hopefully Gordon can hit the ground running and lift our status so that we don't finish last and see our seeding fall.

"Brazil is gone but we need to focus on the European Championships, where more teams will be able to qualify than ever before, as what Scotland fans crave most of all is getting to a major finals again and showing how they can bring life and colour to it."

The Strachan era begins with a match at home to Estonia. With a growing number of Premier League players to choose from, Strachan will be hopeful of getting off to a winning start.

The chances of Wales qualifying for Brazil look as slim as Scotland's. Chris Coleman's tenure has got off to an underwhelming start - even the victory over Scotland came with a large a slice of luck courtesy of a perfectly good Scottish goal being disallowed.

Coleman will be looking for a morale-boosting win at home to Austria to provide some evidence that things are moving in the right direction before the squad gathers again in February for two World Cup qualifiers.

Republic of Ireland also feature in the triple bill of live games and much of the pre-match speculation will focus on whether coach Trapattoni will experiment with new faces or stick with the tried and tested.