Football: BERTI: I WAS READY TO OUIT; Beleaguered boss's 72 hours of despair.

Byline: By MARK GUIDI

SICKENED Scotland boss Berti Vogts last night revealed he has considered resigning in the past 72 hours.

The German has been verbally slaughtered by punters in the wake of Scotland's humiliating 4-0 defeat by Wales last Wednesday.

Now Vogts admits he might not be up to the job of getting us to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany and revealed he has spoken to Scots legend Gordon Strachan about being his replacement.

Asked if he thought about chucking it last week Berti confessed: 'Yes, I was thinking about those things and in certain moments I have doubted myself. But I love working here. I love the Scottish people and the Scottish way of life.

'This is not just a job for me, this is a mission. When I go back to Germany in 2006 I hope the house is built for the future of Scottish football.

'People blame me for the defeat in Cardiff and that is fine. It's better to blame me than my players.

'But progress has been made in my two years here. We are much better now and have a lot of young boys in the squad.

'This is a hard time but what we are doing is the way ahead. I want to keep playing tough opponents and hope the Tartan Army understands why.

'It's a hard job, maybe the hardest I've ever known. When I worked in Germany the biggest defeat I had in 21 years was losing 3-0 to Croatia and we were down

to 10 men after 10 minutes. So this is a painful time for me. 'I suppose it's a painful time for everyone and I feel sorry for the Tartan Army. They spend time and money to watch the team and we would love to win for them all the time.'

But Vogts says he will stick it out and reckons most fans want him to stay.

He said: 'The feedback I have from them is positive and they tell me to keep going in this direction with the difficult friendlies and the young players.'

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