Mcleish To Land New Deal With Sfa

Nov 11 2007 By Mark Guidi

Exclusive

ALEX McLEISH is set to be offered a new contract by the SFA - and MailSport can reveal he has snubbed interest from Wigan who wanted him as their new boss.

SFA chief executive Gordon Smith knows the Scotland manager is in demand and wants to avoid losing him so soon after Walter Smith quit to return to Rangers in January.

McLeish has achieved some magnificent results and victory on Saturday against Italy will guarantee a place at Euro 2008.

Regardless of the outcome of that game the SFA executive board will meet next month to discuss the finer details that will lead to Eck being offered a substantial pay rise and extra two years on his contract that runs until 2010.

McLeish's stock has risen considerably since the 1-0 victory in France and, on the back of seven trophies won while in charge of Rangers, he has attracted interest from England.

Bolton had him in their sights last month and Wigan were desperate to speak to him about replacing Chris Hutchings.

They were prepared to wait until next week in case McLeish was willing to join if qualification wasn't secured.

But it was made clear to them 48 hours ago they would be wasting their time as he is fully committed to Scotland.

Meanwhile, McLeish last night revealed he fears for our chances of beating Italy if he loses players to injury from today's Premiership clashes.

James McFadden, Darren Fletcher, Shaun Maloney and Garry O'Connor are all in action for their clubs this afternoon.

The Scotland gaffer lost Alan Hutton, Scott Brown, Gary Naysmith and Lee McCulloch for the 2-0 defeat in Georgia and hopes not to have to juggle his team again.

McLeish said: "We beat Ukraine 3-1 on the Saturday then four players pulled out injured. None of the guys let us down in Georgia but we lost momentum.

"I hope I don't get a phone call tonight telling me a player has to pull out. We can cope with one or two but it becomes really difficult if you have three or four guys injured. Ideally I will have a full squad to choose from."