During Plymouth Argyle's recent fine run which has seen them find themselves in with a shout of reaching the League One play-offs, manager Derek Adams quipped that he would end up managing in the Champions League if they managed the feat.
Following their 4-2 victory over AFC Wimbledon on February 13th, 2018, during a sequence that also saw the Pilgrims defeat leaders Shrewsbury Town and Blackburn Rovers, Adams quipped when asked if Argyle could feature in the end of season showdown: "I'll be managing in the Champions League. If I get Argyle in the play-offs, I'll be managing in the Champions League,"
At the time of writing, the Pilgrims are in seventh place in the League One table, one point and one place off the play-offs, so a top six finish is not beyond the realms of possibility or reality for Argyle, as things stand.
This would represent an incredible turnaround for Adams and the Pilgrims after they only won four of their opening 17 matches of the 2017-18 season, but could the Scotsman manage at a more prestigious level than Europe's premier club competition and lead his country to a World Cup.
Two former Pilgrims' managers have previously led countries to the World Cup finals. Billy Bingham managed the feat twice with Northern Ireland in 1982 and 1986. In the latter tournament he was also joined by Tony Waiters, who won promotion with the Pilgrims in the 1974-75 season, who guided Canada to the finals of the competition for the first and only time in their history to date.
As one of seven Scottish managers currently managing in the English Premier League and Football League (David Moyes West Ham United, Paul Lambert Stoke City, Alex Neil Preston North End, Graham Alexander Scunthorpe United, Darren Ferguson Doncaster Rovers and Steve Evans Mansfield Town), it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Adams could be on the radar of the SFA for future reference.
His career CV currently includes leading Ross County to the 2010 Scottish Cup final, winning the Scottish PFA manager of the year award in the 2011-12 season, guiding Argyle to promotion from League Two and taking Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool to a replay in the third round of the FA Cup in the 2016-17 campaign.
The present incumbent of the Scotland manager's job is someone is very familiar to Adams in the form of Alex McLeish, who he would have watched as a young boy at Aberdeen where his father, George, worked as a youth coach at Pittodrie under Sir Alex Ferguson (Adams senior was also Ferguson's first ever signing for East Stirlingshire).
Adams will no doubt be taking a keen interest in McLeish's second spell in charge of Scotland, and he could well turn to be one of successors in the future - and re-establishing the Pilgrims in the Championship could well turn out to be part of the journey in achieving that feat.
