Gordon Strachan tipped for Scotland job

Alex McLeish has ruled himself out of the running, but Joe Jordan is interested, as is Gordon Strachan.

Even if officials insist that next week’s friendly against Luxembourg is top of the agenda at present, these bulletins of news have given the Scottish Football Association something to digest as they contemplate the identity of Craig Levein’s successor.

The SFA has the luxury of time to make the right decision and judging from the comments made by Stewart Regan, the chief executive, on Monday night at Hampden Park, it intends to take it.

“Ideally we would like to have as many candidates as possible, candidates of high calibre,” he said. “We need to decide the specification of the manager we’re going to go after, then go out and try to find the person we want. That’s a process that we’ll discuss as a board.”

Even given Strachan’s popularity, and his position as clear favourite with bookmakers, Regan will be conscious of avoiding creating the impression that there is only one candidate that the SFA have in mind, as happened with Craig Levein. The then Dundee United manager’s appointment was railroaded through by then chief executive Gordon Smith and president George Peat.

This time, the SFA will aim to be seen to be more thorough. Although his time in office has been used to streamline the SFA’s decision-making bodies, Regan spent time on Monday night defending the role of the seven-man SFA board in deciding Levein’s fate. This same panel, including Tom Johnston of the Junior FA and Highland League mainstay Alan McRae, will begin discussions about Levein’s successor after next Wednesday’s friendly.

“I think we have a board that adds great value to the Scottish FA,” he said. “It is made up of a number of key representatives, including an independent non-executive director. There is a huge amount of different skill-sets. It is not just a business board, it is a football board as well.

“I have worked in a number of different organisations and I can assure you we have gone through this process with rigour, and we have arrived at the right decision for Scottish football.”

The right decision in this instance was perhaps the only one that was left to make once Levein’s intention to go at the end of this qualifying campaign was made clear to the board. Now, however, they are presented with a variety of options.

Strachan, however, has been quickly installed as the favourite, and he was given further recommendation by Neil Lennon yesterday.