Football: McLeish just the job for clubs in England

Jul 15 2007 ROB MACLEAN

IF the last England manager hadn't been up for coming back to Britain, the current Scotland gaffer was high on Manchester City's wanted list.

Sven-Goran Eriksson was always the top target for former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the new City owner, after Claudio Ranieri opted for Juventus.

But contingency plans were obviously in place in case Eriksson didn't see the rehabilitation of a toiling team as the ideal way to relaunch his management career.

I'm told Alex McLeish was much fancied for the City job if Sven had knocked back a return to English football.

And his name will continue to crop up south of the border in the season ahead as the inevitable axe falls for managers of struggling sides.

Out with the top four or five Premiership clubs McLeish (below) will have his name in the frame for any vacancies.

And he'll also be linked with teams in the Coca-Cola Championship whose promotion ambitions aren't being realised.

Eck's stock is high after his first six months in the Scotland job have seen him maintain momentum in our bid to qualify for next summer's Euro finals.

And his reputation in club management remains intact. He delivered seven trophies in four-and-a-half years at Rangers and made Scottish history by taking Gers to the knock-out phase of the Champions League.

Those who sip from a half-empty glass feared he was taking on a poisoned chalice in January after predecessor Walter Smith had led the national team from gloom to glory.

What McLeish actually did was utilise the existing feelgood factor and build on the strong foundations.

Since he took over Scotland have won two of their three games in European Championship Group B, five wins out of seven in total, and we're still in contention for one of the two qualification places.

So McLeish is high profile and very much on the radar of big-name English clubs.

Moving further afield could also be a possibility - maybe a switch similar to former Fulham manager Chris Coleman who's now at Spanish club Real Sociedad.

But make no mistake, Eck is going nowhere in the near future despite any temptations which might come his way.

Scotland for him is unfinished business.

He'll desperately want to make his mark in international management on the back of a glittering 77-cap career as a player. And while he'll be flattered by Man City's interest there's no chance of him jumping ship.

Total focus at the moment is on those five qualifiers in the space of 10 weeks starting in September that will decide if we're heading for Austria and Switzerland in a year's time.

I didn't think we'd qualify when the draw was made and even after much-improved performances and results I haven't changed my mind.

But I don't see that as failure. If Scotland are still in with a chance of qualification going into the last couple of matches that strikes me as real progress.

Unluckily, we're in the strongest group of the lot.

A state of emergency would be declared in France or Italy if either of the World Cup finalists failed to make it.

And we've maybe made a major mistake in upsetting the French by beating them at Hampden last October.

Revenge in Paris in mid-September will be uppermost in their minds.

Scotland's last group game is at home to the Italians in November. How good would it be if our hopes were still alive in front of a frantic full house at Hampden?

But of course it's not just the big two who stand in our way. Ukraine, World Cup quarter-finalists last summer, are only three points behind with a game in hand.

And with Andriy Shevchenko and co coming to Glasgow in October, remember how well beaten Scotland were in Kiev last time.

Immediately after Ukraine there's a difficult trip to Tbilisi even if Georgia are second-bottom of the seven-team group. It took a late flurry to beat them here in March.

However, none of the above will matter a jot unless Scotland win the first of those five matches, the home game against Lithuania.

Hampden accountants will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of again sticking up the sold-out signs but for the national team it's about prestige more than pounds.

We've sunk in the seedings for the big international competitions. That's why we're on mission impossible and also why a third-place finish in Group B would be far from a disgrace.

To come through the campaign above Ukraine, Lithuania and Georgia would be a definite step in the right direction.

It would also make McLeish an even more wanted man. But prospective employers will have to wait.