Tommy Burns broke his silence yesterday on being overlooked for the Scotland manager’s job for the third time in four years, but endorsed George Burley’s decision to bring Terry Butcher and Steven Pressley into the new backroom staff.

The Celtic coach, who was national assistant to both Berti Vogts and Walter Smith, was beaten to the Scotland vacancy by Burley when the SFA last week chose the former Southamp-ton manager ahead of Burns, Mark McGhee and Graeme Souness.

Burns was not even spoken to by the SFA last year when it appointed Alex McLeish, even though he had performed the job as caretaker when Vogts left in 2004. Now Burley is keen to make Butcher his assistant, and appoint Pressley, the Celtic defender, as a coach. Both roles would be part-time. The SFA said yesterday that Butcher had “agreed in principle” to his role, while Pressley, who was omitted from a 27-man squad that Burley named for a three-day gathering at Loch Lomond, has yet to agree a deal.

Burns has no qualms about Butcher, who won 77 caps for England, inheriting the assistant role that he had under Vogts and Smith. “Maybe Terry’s nationality would be an issue if it were the top job but George knows that Terry is a winner,” he said.

Burns admitted that he did not hold out much hope of becoming Scotland manager despite being on a four-man shortlist. “I am disappointed but to be honest I never really built my hopes up,” Burns said. “It kind of panned out over the course of the circus that that was the way it happened. But we have got a good man in George Burley, a first-class man, an excellent football manager with a good philosophy on the game. I think he’ll do very well.”

Burns was philosophical over the way the recruitment process was handled. “I got a call from Gordon Smith[ the SFA chief executive],” he said. “These things tend to happen in football, it’s difficult to keep a lid on things. There are always guys leaking things and saying they didn’t leak them. You have all the politics that go on in football, all the media things that go on. It’s very difficult to keep anything proper and conduct everything to suit everybody. It’s history now and we move on.”

Burns, 52, seems to have accepted his involvement with the national team is over but he hopes his coaching record at international level is not tainted by negative perceptions of the German’s era. “I had a great five years there where I saw it at its worst, when Berti was going through a process of elimination with all sorts of players. He got character assassinated by all and sundry, going through a process that he had to go through in order to get the McFaddens and the Fletchers.

But in the competitive games the record under Berti wasn’t bad at all.

“And then Walter came in, worked his magic and changed it, more the atmosphere than anything else.

“It is past and hopefully the association that you are judged on with Berti Vogts is the same you are judged on with Walter Smith.”

Scotland training squad: N Alexander (Ipswich Town), C Gordon (Sunderland), A McGregor (Rangers), D Marshall (Norwich City); G Alexander (Burnley), R Anderson (Sunderland), G Caldwell (Celtic), Christian Dailly (West Ham United), A Hutton (Rangers), S McManus (Celtic), G Murty (Reading), G Naysmith (Sheffield United), D Weir (Rangers); S Brown (Celtic), B Ferguson (Rangers), D Fletcher (Manchester United), P Hartley (Celtic), L McCulloch (Rangers), S Pearson (Derby County), B Robson (Dundee United), G Teale (Derby County); C Beattie (West Bromwich Albion), K Boyd (Rangers), J McFadden (Birmingham City), S Maloney (Aston Villa), K Miller (Derby County), G O’Connor (Birmingham City).