Vogts, who had two-and-a-half years in charge of Scotland until resigning in November 2004, believes his stint in the job helped set the team on the right track.

He gave debuts to many current internationals, and does not accept that his reign was a complete failure.

He told the News of the World: "If you look back on my time in Scotland I brought in a lot of new players and that always makes getting good results difficult.

"But my record in competitive qualifying games was good, although the results in the friendlies were bad."

Vogts suggests the players who emerged under his leadership and then flourished under Walter Smith and latterly Alex McLeish could be Scotland internationals "for 10 years or more".

Scotland top their qualifying group for next summer's finals, ahead of Italy and France.

Vogts added: "I know people laughed at some of the things I did when I was there, but maybe we will all be laughing together when Scotland are in Austria or Switzerland next summer."