Pedro’s surely a goner … but players can’t be excused either for flop that’s turned Scotland into international outcasts

After the tears and heartbreak of Tuesday night in Helsinki, and Scotland’s failure to reach next summer’s European Championships, it is now just a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ Pedro Martinez Losa will be jettisoned.

Discussions will take place at SFA boardroom level as the future of the head coach is determined. While it is unlikely there will be any rush for a decision, it is highly unlikely the 48-year-old will survive a second consecutive play-off defeat.

In the immediate aftermath of a limp 2-0 defeat to Finland – which has now been six years since the Scottish women have played in a major tournament – there was a reluctance among Hampden’s leaders to make a quick call on the Spaniard.

There is only a short break in the international calendar until the end of February, before the Nations League campaign gets underway against Austria and the Netherlands, which would still give the SFA room to find a replacement.

It’s hard to believe enough confidence remained in Martinez Losa – after the play-off defeat to the Republic of Ireland at Hampden in a World Cup play-off in October 2022 – to give him a four-year contract extension to grant.

Although this raised eyebrows at the time, it is unlikely that axe-wielding will be banned. Mail Sport understands that a termination clause would provide a specific time frame for compensation, likely a year, rather than the entire deal.

The SFA did not rush to a decision on Steve Clarke following this summer’s disappointing European Championships, with their patience arguably justified by recent results. The big difference when it comes to Clarke and Martinez Losa, however, is that the man boss had significant credit in the bank.

Scotland may have been disappointing in both European Championships under Clarke’s leadership, but at least qualifying pointed to success in appointing him.

When Martinez Losa got the job in 2021, Scotland had just failed to reach the Euros after a campaign in which they were seeded and expected to top their group. It was honestly a disaster.

At the time, Scottish player Lisa Evans stressed that there was a need for ‘greater professionalism’ around the whole set-up. Martinez Losa was brought in to solve that problem, with the main task being to qualify for major tournaments. Two failures in a row since then is not a good prospect.

Asked whether he still believes he is the right man for the job after Tuesday night’s flop, the Spaniard suggested it was not about ‘the right man’. Instead, he said, it was about the “right conditions” needed for Scotland to reach a major tournament.

Then let’s examine some damning facts.

Martinez Losa has arguably been in charge of the most talented midfield ever made available to a Scottish women’s manager.

Erin Cuthbert is part of Chelsea’s ranks among the best in Europe, Caroline Weir is getting all kinds of acclaim at Real Madrid, while Sam Kerr is successfully plying her trade at Bayern Munich.

It should be plausible to get a sense of this squad – a significant number of whom compete at the elite level every week.

Consider this too. Scotland have beaten just three top 30 teams in his three years in charge, and only one has been in a competitive encounter, against Austria.

It is difficult to make any defense for Martinez Losa when his job was to take the team to its first major final since the 2019 World Cup.

However, serious questions must also be asked about the players and their inability to handle the pressure when it reaches the crucial stage of the play-offs.

There is a chicken-and-egg situation among women in Scotland. More investment is needed to grow the game domestically, and it is equally impossible to ignore the rapid acceleration that has taken place in other leagues in Europe.

The inability to reach last summer’s World Cup, the most commercially viable women’s football tournament there has ever been, combined with the inability to reach next summer’s European Championship, leaves Scotland a weak outcast. And the gap continues to widen.

Attendance at national team games was low. The energy and excitement created when 18,555 people descended on Hampden for a friendly against Jamaica ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France has never been equaled.

Games have been moved from Mount Florida to Easter Road to create some atmosphere. But even in last Friday’s first leg against the Finns – with everything on the line and Scotland entering the match on the back of a strong run of results – there was no prospect of a five-figure attendance.

Anyone who comes in now will have quite a job to turn it all around.

This week’s defeat in Helsinki confirmed what many had expected after the insipid goalless draw in Edinburgh. Finland, currently three places lower than Martinez Losa’s side in the FIFA World Rankings, will head to Switzerland at the expense of Scotland in July. They have qualified for five of the last six European Championships.

And Scotland? A third successive failure for Scotland to reach a major tournament and the second under the Spaniard’s watch.

So why couldn’t he motivate his team when it counted? Why couldn’t the players recreate their club format for their country? Why do they seem to be freezing in the playoffs?

Martinez Losa doesn’t get a chance to answer those questions.